Caught up
by gizzymoon
Summary: Luke and Penelope get caught up in a blizzard. Trying very hard to post every weekend.
1. Chapter 1

Penelope Garcia glanced up when she heard him enter her office but she was so preoccupied with the pages on her monitor that she didn't really bother looking at him. "I haven't had a chance to look over the file you sent me yet. I promise to get to it as soon as I finish up with this report for Emily." She told him, assuming that was why he had ventured into her space. It wasn't normal for her to get visitor's back here.

"It's fine. I know you'll get to it when you can." Luke Alvez said.

She spun in her chair, twirling her pink, unicorn topped pen in her hand. "Did you need something-"

She stopped before she could finish the sentence. Dark circles had formed under his tired-looking brown eyes. His jaw was clenched and his full plumb lips formed a tight line. His black, usually neat hair was rumpled as if he'd been pulled his hand through it and his shoulders were slumped. "What's happened? Is everything okay?" she asked, getting immediately to her feet. "Is it Roxy? Please say it isn't Roxy."

He held out a manila folder and offered it to her. "Roxy's fine."He assured her. "Everything is fine."

"Liar." She muttered as she took the file from him and dropped it on the desk behind her without looking at it.

He caught her eye for a moment and they just stood there staring at each other, neither of them moving or speaking. Penelope noticed something in his handsome face that made her breath catch in her throat but it was such a brief thing she wasn't sure she hadn't imagined it.

Then he looked away and chuckled humorlessly. "I came in here to hide out from everyone for a little while." He announced as he scratched at the scruffy hair covering his jaw.

"Why are you hiding? What's happened?" she asked again.

"I don't know why I thought you wouldn't notice. I guess sometimes I forget that you're an F.B.I. agent, too."

She was more than a little insulted by that, but she let it slide because she knew he realized his mistake. If there was anyone in this office that would notice something was off with one of them, it was her. The look on his face said he knew that now.

"So, spill." she insisted, instead of letting him have it for underestimating her.

"Everything is fine. Honestly, I'm fine." He repeated for good measure.

"You just admitted that you weren't and you look like crap. Clearly your definition of fine and mine are different. Tell me this – is it work or home?"

When he came towards her she turned the chair beside hers out for him and took her own. Once he was settled he cleared his throat. "Both, I guess, but I don't want to talk about it. Can I just sit in here with you until the briefing?"

She eyed him for a moment longer before nodding her head and turning back towards her computer. "So, what don't you want to talk about?" She tried one more time.

He dropped his hands to his thighs and pushed the chair back like he was about to leave, but she stopped him with a hand on his arm. "I'll stop. You can sit here if you want. But if you do decide to talk about it, I'm here to listen."

He settled back but his eyes were still on hers. "I don't believe that for a second."

Now she was insulted. "You don't believe that I care about whatever is bothering you!?"

"Of course, I know you care. I just don't think that you could sit there and just listen if I decided to talk about it." He explained.

She bit the inside of her lip, knowing she was taking a huge chance but believing she was up for the challenge. "I can, too. If that's what you want. I won't say a thing. You have my word." She clamped her bright, red lips for emphasis.

He was quiet for a long while. She thought he'd decided against trusting her, then he cleared his raspy throat again. It was the first time she noticed that it sounded as if he'd been yelling.

"Lisa went to stay with her brother for a while." He said finally.

"How long is a while?" Penelope asked and he gave her an 'I told you so' glare. She mouthed 'I'm sorry' before clamping her lips shut again.

"I have no idea how long. For good maybe. She's been gone two weeks and still won't answer my calls. So, I don't know." He looked down at his hands, scrutinizing the cuticles before looking back to her with a roll of his eyes. "Fine, say something."

"Did you have a fight?" she asked with concern in her voice.

"No," he shook his head. "We had a lot of fights. Looks like the last one might have been the straw though." He sighed.

"About what?" she asked, completely forgetting her agreement to keep quiet.

"Everything, what to have for dinner, where to put a chair, what to watch on T.V.. She works too much. I work too much. She wants to get a cat." He went on with the list.

"Sounds like normal couple stuff to me." She shrugged. "And what's wrong with wanting a cat?"

"Nothing except that I already feel terrible for leaving Roxy alone like I do."

"Except that Lisa is around when you aren't." She reminded him.

"That's just it. She isn't. She works double shifts at the hospital. She comes in long enough to let her out and then she's right back at work. Roxy still spends most of her time alone. She's even got the neighbor kid taking Roxy out for walks in the afternoons now. I know she works a lot and I don't expect her to take care of my dog. I just don't understand why she would want to get another pet that we'll just neglect, too."

She held up her hand. "First of all, Roxy is not neglected. If I believed that I would be the first one to say it. I think we can agree that that's a fact." He nodded grudgingly. "But second off, I can see where you're coming from. But you do know that most cats prefer to be left alone for hours on end. Sergio decides when he wants to see me. It's not the same as a dog. But I see your point on this argument."

He jumped to his feet, pushing the chair back with the suddenness of the movement. "See," he pointed at her. "Right there. That is exactly what I was trying to say."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I talked, didn't I? I guess you were right. I can't do it." She apologized, hoping she hadn't scared him away.

"No," He shook his head emphatically. "I mean, just what you said. Was it so hard to say you can see things my way, too? And I understand that couples fight about stupid things. My parents love to argue. They argue about everything, too, but they don't fight about everything."

"I mean, come on, how bad could a fight about dinner be?" she asked.

"I slept on the couch that night." He admitted.  
"Why? How does that happen?"

"She wanted Indian food. I told her I don't really like Indian food."

"Me either." Penelope whispered, like it was a state secret.

"So now she says that this is exactly what she's talking about when she says I'm too closed off. She says I should have said something about the Indian food before now since we eat it all the time." He said, sitting back down and clearly forgetting all about not wanting to talk about it.

"Why haven't you said anything before now?" She asked completely engrossed in his animation which was suddenly amped up to high because now he was on his feet again.

"It never really mattered to me. I'm usually too tired to care or she has already ordered food by the time I get home and I've usually already grabbed something. It isn't a big deal." He shrugged. "I just don't really like it."

"Okay, so did you tell her that?"

"I tried but by the time I was done, she was in tears and I was ranting."

"Why was she in tears?" Penelope asked trying to break down the situation.

"She said I don't let people get to know me and I'll never change." He said, sitting down again and slumping his shoulders.

"And you lashed out because it stung?" She guessed.

"No, I lashed out because I'm really trying to do better and she never gives me credit for that." he replied.

Penny blinked at him for a long uncomfortable moment. He wasn't usually that honest and it had them both squirming in their chairs.

"Did you tell her that?" she asked finally.

"No," he admitted. "I started yelling about how hard she was making it to just order some food. Then she got up and started banging around in the kitchen and she's crying and slamming doors and I took off." He shifted and sighed. "When I got back she'd made up the couch and gone to bed. Then I was gone for a few days on a case. Anyway, we never talked about it again."

"I want to help you." She told him with a light touch on his arm.

She was never exactly certain how to act around Luke. He wasn't like the other members of the BAU and she had no idea why. Everyone else she was always completely comfortable around. Luke was different. Touching him felt somehow inappropriate. It was strange because it had never felt inappropriate to hug Spencer or even Derek, for that matter. But she and Luke had tried it once and it had not gone well. It was crazy awkward and stiff. Now she made sure to keep physical contact with Luke to a minimum. It was the same with the banter. Something was different about him. She and Derek had gotten close to being not suitable for work many times and it had never felt weird. But somehow even giving Luke a nickname other than Newbie felt oddly intimate.

"I'm not sure how you can." He answered, bring her back to the present.

She pushed her errant thoughts aside and tried to concentrate on the problem in front of her. Unfortunately, the problem in front of her hadn't shied away from her hand. It was still laying on his arm and she could feel his heat in her fingertips and that sent a shiver of something yummy right to the pit of her stomach. He was wearing his red shirt today and it was stretch tightly across his well muscled chest, the same way his black jeans were stretched over his thighs. His facial hair was a touch more scraggly today and something about that made it seem even more alluring. She wanted to reach up and run her fingers through the stubble. She could feel the delightful roughness of it already.

She stopped herself when she realized she was leaning in like she did during briefings to get a hint of his cologne. He'd once told her that he didn't wear cologne, but she knew he was lying. No one smelled that good without help.

Shit! She snatched her hand away from him like he'd burned her. When she did, it sent her coffee cup tumbling, spilling all over his leg and her butterfly covered dress. He leaped to his feet and grabbed some napkins from her desk to mop up the mess.

"Are you okay?" she asked, concerned that it had burned him.

"Yeah, it wasn't hot anymore. How about you? What happened?"

She grabbed a few more napkins and dabbed at the brown stain seeping across her yellow dress. "Yeah, I'm sorry. I just remembered something that I need to get done. It's pretty urgent." She lied, wanting nothing more than to get him out of her office. Now.

She needed to think about what had just happened. She needed time to figure out what it all meant, even though she was already pretty sure.

"I'll let you get back to it. I need to go change anyway." He took a step towards her and gave her a smile that struck her somewhere around her knees. It was one of those crocked ones that reminded her of Han Solo. She did her best not to wobble. "Thank you for listening. I really appreciate you pushing. I guess I did have a few things to get off my chest."

Her eyes immediately fell to his muscled chest against her wishes. She glanced back up but his expression said he noticed.

She mumbled a quick, 'you're welcome' and added an 'anytime' for good measure. When he turned and left she could have sworn he had an extra swagger in his walk.

She flopped down in her chair still staring at the spot where he'd disappeared. How had this happened? When did she let herself become attracted to a member of the team. That wasn't how things worked. That road led to potentially messy outcomes.

It could also lead to hot, sweaty nights spent with their bodies wrapped around each other while he whispered to her in Spanish and she ran her cherry red fingernails over the luscious washboard of his stomach.

Damn it! This time the scream was an internal one, thank God. She shook her head, trying to clear the images from her brain. Turning back to her computer she reached for her keyboard. Perhaps some good old fashion horrible murders could help her think again. She dove into her work and promised herself that she would never let her mind wander like that again. Certain things were off-limits and Luke Alvez was one of them, for too many reasons to count.


	2. Chapter 2

After changing his jeans out with a clean pair from his go bag, Luke noticed the sudden spring he felt in his step and for the life of him he didn't know where it had come from. It certainly hadn't been there before he'd gone to Garcia's office. Talking to her had helped. Maybe it was all he needed, someone to talk to. Lisa had never been that. He'd never been able to really talk to her. Well that wasn't true. They talked. They talked all the time. They just never talked about things that mattered anymore. And it seemed like all they ever did was talk about their feelings or fight about not talking about them. He wasn't even sure anymore.

He could feel those old flight or flight instincts kicking in. When it came to romantic situations there was no fight instinct in him. He always ran at the first sight of trouble. And things at home were definitely in trouble.

The spring was gone again and he could actually feel his shoulders slumping as he slid behind his desk. The only three things on top of it besides his F.B.I. issue mug and laptop where a gold framed picture of Roxy, a handmade frame with a picture of the entire team that Penny had given him for Christmas and a picture of Lisa. He looked at her for a long time before he decided that he didn't like that picture. It looked like one that might have come with the frame. He couldn't see any life in her eyes, no joy. His gaze subconsciously jumped to the picture of the team. He smiled as Penelope stood proudly in the middle of the group with her tiny arms doing their best to encompass them all. She didn't make it past J.J., who was on one side of her or Reid, who was on her other side, but she was trying. You could see it in her face, a face so full of joy and life you couldn't miss it.

But then Garcia had always been that for him. His very first day, the very first time he saw her, it was like the entire world had colorized where before it had been black and white.

He looked back at Lisa. He couldn't understand why they couldn't make this work, why he couldn't make it work. Everything seemed so perfect. She was Latino. His mother and Abuelita liked that. She was a doctor. He liked that. They both hated the Bulls and loved the Knicks. They both loved animals. The woman was an E.D. doctor at a hospital in Washington, D.C.. Who won't admire that? She was a freaking hero.

He studied her picture again. Her light brown hair fell around her shoulders in a wave that framed her beautiful face. Yet her smile seemed plastic, forced. He tried to remember where the picture had been taken. But for the life of him he couldn't. She was wearing a green dress that gave off a shimmer so they must have been on a date but he couldn't remember where or when it was.

He really wanted to make things work with Lisa. They seemed so perfect on paper and Phil had been the one that brought them together. Would he be disappointed in him if they didn't work out?

He'd never know the answer to that question and that thought hit him like a blow to the stomach. Every thought of Phil brought with it a gut punch. God, he hoped it wouldn't always feel that way. He hoped one day he could think about his friend with fondness instead of feeling like his inside were being ripped out over and over again.

"We have a case." Rossi told him with a nod towards the conference room as he walked past.

Luke got to his feet with a final look at Lisa's picture before following after him. He was glad for the distraction. Maybe it would be just what he needed to get his head back together.

Penelope watched the team assemble in a cloud of smiles and nods. She was preoccupied and she was pretty sure it showed. She purposely avoided Luke's eyes when he came and sat down right beside her like it was his assigned seat. It was his place at the table. No one had given it to him. He'd just taken it like he belonged there.

Over the last few minutes she had come to realize that this thing that was happening in her head and in her knees and in her stomach were all his fault. He was living with someone, for God's sake. He shouldn't be strutting around here in his too tight jeans, flashing his dazzling, beyond-charming smile at her every time she looked his way. He didn't have to be so great that she couldn't help but feel like her legs couldn't hold her up when he got that sad look on his face when she told them about the victims of the latest atrocity that they would be confronting.

"Lincoln, Nebraska," She said as she pushed the button on the clicker in her hand and changed the screen behind her to show seven photos. "Named after our nation's sixteenth president and home of The International Quilt study center and museum, the national museum of rollerskating and all manner of nature, plus these seven individuals. Or rather it was their home until they all met their untimely ends. Each was found in a different dumpster, wrapped in plastic and each missing their genitalia and heart, both removed antemortem. The cause of death in all seven cases is massive blood loss, yet there was no blood at any of the scenes."

"Meaning they were cut up and killed somewhere else." Rossi offered.

"Exactly. There has been not even one tiny scrap of forensic evidence and so far, the Lincoln police have no leads."

"Being that all the victims are male and their hearts and genitals were removed, we could be looking at a black widow situation." Reid announced as he glanced up from the folder in front of him.

"Female serial killers are rare but not completely unheard of," Tara added. "Though the most used method of killing is poison. What do we know about the wounds on the bodies?"

"Clean, precise, one might even say surgical." Penelope answered, clicking the button to show a close up of the wounds on the screen behind her.

Emily squinted as she looked up at the images. "So someone with medical expertise."

"Most likely, but not necessarily. There are a few non-medical careers that could give someone the same kind of experience, like a butcher, for example." Rossi chimed in again.

"All the victims have been identified?" Luke asked, purposely looking down at the folder instead of up at Penelope, she noticed.

"No, actually, only three have a name." She pushed the clicker to bring up three pictures. "Alex Cummings, Henry Overton and Jack Fallon. The rest are all John Doe, at this point."

Finally, he lifted his eyes to her. "Any connections?"

"They were all regular players of the MMO Black Dawn." she said, clicking again to show avatars of the three men from the game.

"So we can assume the others are players as well?" J.J. asked.

"Well, you know what they say about assuming, but I am looking into that avenue of connection, yes." Penelope said. "And can I just add as a player of said game, I am appalled by this. We are a nice bunch of folks. I hate to think that one of my fellow players is capable of something this heinous."

"You play this game?"

"Level 65 Dwarf Cleric." She answered with a curtsy.

"Okay, David and Tara, talk to the family of the known victims. Spencer and Matt check in with the coroner to see if they have any new information. J.J. and I will liaison with the police department in Lincoln, and it looks like Luke and Penelope will be checking out the local gaming community."

"Wait, do you mean from here?" Penelope asked, surprised by the turn of events.

"Nope. Looks like your going on a field trip." Emily smiled at her. "Wheels up in 30." Then she grabbed her folder and phone and left the room without further discussion.

"Looks like you're with me," Luke said as he got up and slid his phone into his back pocket.

Penelope forced a smile. "Guess so."


	3. Chapter 3

Penny stiffened when she felt Luke's hand on the small of her back as he helped her over to the passenger side of the vehicle. Once inside, he handed her the food and quickly jumped into the driver's seat.

"Can you drive in this?" she asked, worriedly and getting more so at seeing the look on his face.

"I'm from New York remember?" With a forced confidence she could tell he wasn't feeling.

"That means you probably didn't even learn to drive until you got to the academy." She answered.

He was gritting his teeth as he pulled the car back onto the roadway. The highway department had come through with salt trucks recently so getting back on the interstate was fairly easy.

It would have been easier had they not lost signal on their phones and GPS five minutes after he pulled onto the multi-lane expressway.

It was nearly twenty minutes later before they realized they were hopelessly lost.

"I see a huge house. Maybe it's a B and B, or wouldn't mind becoming one for a night." she said, pointing out what looked like it might be a house set a couple hundred feet off the road.

They had left the expressway after determining there was no way to see in the near white out conditions. Now they were just looking for somewhere, anywhere to pull over, stop for the night and not freeze to death.

The windshield wipers were a blur across the window yet they still couldn't keep up with the rate of the fat, wet drops of snow pelting it from above.

They were in the middle of a wooden bridge before they even realized they were on it but Luke managed to get them to the other side of it without them falling over the side. Penny hadn't realized it until they were over it but she had her hand on his knee the entire time, clutching it like her life depended on it. She let it go quickly but then saw that he probably hadn't even noticed.

Luke's jaw was set in a clench as he gritted his teeth in concentration. His shoulders tight and resting somewhere near his ears, Penny had long since lost her sense of safety.

He took his eyes from in front of him for a split second, just long enough to see where she was pointing. He nodded and slowly, very carefully began guiding the SUV in that direction. He had been boasting about his skills driving in inclement weather. He was really bad at it and a Southern California girl like herself, had no idea.

The tightness in her chest lessened when she saw that the house was indeed a Bed and Breakfast. A three story white farmhouse that looked like it might have been inviting and charming if she could see it under the all the snow. She could make out pitched roofs and dormer covered windows on the upper floors. The ground floor was three steps up and across an adorable covered porch where she and Luke stopped to ring the bell and stomp the snow from their boots.

He had had to help her across the yard as she trudged through a layer of ground cover nearly knee deep. Her tights were wet all the way down to her toes where the powder had gotten into her boot from the top. Luke looked completely frozen in his not-nearly-heavy-enough pea coat and ankle high boots. His jeans were wet nearly to his knees as well. And he had both of their go bags over his right shoulder. His hand was around the straps and his knuckles were red and angry-looking.

She unconsciously tugged at the red knit slouchy beret she was wearing and thought about offering it to him. Then her finger bumped over the red flower on the side and she couldn't help smile at imagining him wearing it.

"What?" he asked.

She shook her head. "You look so miserable."

"That's because it's really, really cold." He smiled at her sardonically.

"Where are these people?" she asked impatiently as she punched the buzzer beside the door again.

Finally the porch was flooded with yellow light as the solid wood door came open. "Come in. Come in." A woman exclaimed as she ushered them in out of the cold. "Are you lost?" Her accent was distinctly Northern.

"We are. We were hoping you had some rooms available just for the night." Luke said.

"We have one open room available. A couple from Chicago couldn't make it because of the weather and had to cancel." She said, offering way too much information in Penny's opinion.

"Do you have a landline? I can't get a signal and I really need to reach our people and let them know we're okay." Penny asked as Luke went about handing her his credit card and getting them checked in.

The woman pointed it out and told her to help herself.

"Where the hell have the two of you been?" Prentiss asked the moment she answered the phone.

"We got lost trying to find our way back to the motel. The tournament was a washout. But we found a place to stay tonight. We're in-" she paused to find something with an address on it.

"You're right outside of Denton." the woman supplied helpfully.

"Denton. We're in Denton, or right outside of it." Penny told her, shifting their takeout bags from one hand to the other.

"Denton? Wow, you really did get lost. You guys, hang tight and stay warm."

"That's the plan, Captain. We'll see you in the morning." she answered.

"Oh, I doubt that." The woman said offhandedly as she gave Luke back his I.D. and credit card.

"I'm sorry?" Luke asked her to repeat herself.

"The bridge." she answered simply. "The one you passed on your way in, it'll be impassable by morning and it's the only road up this way."

"You mean we're stuck here?" Penny asked, dropping the phone from her shoulder where she'd been cradling it.

"Until the weather clears. Could be tomorrow afternoon, but I wouldn't bet on it. We don't have Wi-Fi, but there's cable TV in the suite and -" She said something about activities and treatments but Penny hadn't been able to concentrate since she said there was no Wi-Fi.

"Excuse me, do you mean there is no internet access of any kind?"

"No, and phone service is terrible in this kind of weather. There's this landline available to the guest at anytime."

Penny picked up the phone again and told Prentiss she'd let her know what was going on in the morning. Then she hung up and jumped right into Luke's conversation which was already in progress.

"You look like a nice couple. I'll let you have the weekend package for half price." She was telling Luke as she shoved a brochure at him.

"We're F.B.I. agents here in Lincoln working on a case. We have to get out of here tomorrow." he answered. Penelope could see the frustration in his face, but she could also see his lips turning an unhealthy shade of blue from his still wet feet.

"We'll be fine. Just right now, give us a room and let us get warm. We'll figure all the rest out tomorrow."

She reached for her bag, which he had dropped at his feet to fill out the paperwork. But he brushed her away and returned both bags to his shoulder.

"It's the third floor, attic room suite." the woman said, handing Penny a key and pointing towards the staircase. "We serve breakfast in the dining room at eight or it can be delivered to your room if you prefer."

"We'll be down." Luke answered as he mounted the staircase.

"You don't have to carry my bag." Penny muttered to him as they started up the stairs to the attic.

He glanced around at her and again force a smile she knew he wasn't really feeling. "It's fine. I've got it."

She dashed ahead of him at the top of the stairs which lead to a single locked door. Apparently the third floor was all theirs.

* * *

Luke had known the place was well out of the bureau's price range when he signed them in. He had managed to trap them in a high price luxury spa for what could be the weekend.

He also knew the only other choice was to sleep in the SUV and risk hypothermia. It was well below zero out there and it didn't look like the snow planned to stop anytime soon. They were in the middle of a full blown Midwest Blizzard.

So, when Penny opened the door he fought back a grimace at the decadence of the room in front of him. He'd known it was coming. He'd been able to brace for it. He'd also seen the brochures on the counter. So he also knew this was a couple's spa complete with a cozy, four-posted, quilt-covered, queen size bed in the middle of the room. The walls were a deep shade of beige and the floor was covered in high piled, burgundy carpet. A fireplace sat on the wall opposite the bed. It was stacked and ready to be lit so he dropped the bags and did just that while Penny continued to marvel at her surroundings.

Beside the fireplace on one side was a window seat covered in throw pillows. On the other side, matching high back burgundy colored chairs sat under a velvet curtained window.

He had spotted the TV sitting over the mantel of the fireplace and he thanked God for that, silently. He didn't want to miss the game tomorrow night if they were snowed in. Usually when they were away from home, he watched basketball in his hotel room with Matt or even occasionally, Reid, when they stopped for a break. He wasn't sure Penelope even liked basketball.

"What is this place?" she asked as she finally shut the door.

Luke stood up from where he was kneeling getting the fire going and shrugged. "It seems to be a luxury spa for couples called the Truly, Madly, Deeply Spa." He rocked back on his heels with his hands in his pockets while she took all that in.

"Seriously?"

He nodded.

"Even I find that over the top. And let me tell you, my friend, it is hard to over-the-top me."

The fire had started to take hold so he stood there letting it thaw his frozen pant legs. He hadn't been able to feel his feet since they left the truck.

He watched her glance up at the mirror over the bed and roll her eyes just so they could land on the long dresser with attached mirror facing it. "Dear God," she muttered, as she went to check out the rest of the spacious suite. "They have us surrounded."

He couldn't stop the chuckled that escaped his lips. Watching her made him forget about his numb feet and aching hands. It drew him in like it almost always did. She was so utterly distracting to him, like a movie he couldn't stop watching or a song he couldn't get out of his head. She had an ability to captivate him like no one else could.

She let out a yelp and stopped short after opening a door to her right. He was too curious not to follow her to see what she had found.

What she found was a beautiful, rustic bathroom with a double sink, a shower for at least three people and a Jacuzzi that looked like it could accommodate four. A wooden walkway lead up to the massive, green marbled tub. The walls were golden pine colors as were the floors and cabinets. A rustic makeup vanity with a round, lighted mirror perched under the room's only window.

She turned to him with her mouth open. "Dibs on the tub." She squealed happily. Then she looked down at his still wet pant legs and sighed, her face fallen. "No, you need to get warm. You get dibs on the tub."

"Not a chance. I'm fine. I've just got to get out of these clothes and into something dry then she's all yours. Besides, I'm still hungry. I want to eat."

Penny had carried their to-go food in and placed them on the table between the two chairs. "Oh, yeah. I forgot about food. I really should eat first." she agreed.

"Then you'll have to wait a half hour before you get in that thing." he teased her.

They both changed quickly. Luke got into a pair of navy sweatpants with a drawstring and a red t-shirt that was a size too big for him. He had a bit of trouble with his socks sticking to his feet, but he managed to peel them away and get a fresh pair on his red, numb feet. When he got back to the bedroom, Penny grabbed her bag and returned sooner than he expected in a pair of fuzzy pink pants and a roomy long sleeve purple and pink stripped t-shirt. Her feet were covered in pink polka dotted fuzzy socks and her hair was pulled back into a short ponytail.

"What?" she demanded when he eyed her warily.

"I've never seen the Penelope show this late. It's tamer than I expected." He said, considering how normal she looked.

"What exactly were you expecting?"

"I don't know, a one piece unicorn pajama thing." He tried.

She nodded and smiled. "Oh, no, I'm saving that for tomorrow night."

While they were eating, the woman from downstairs knocked on the door and presented them with a handful of towels as well as two bottles of wine and two vases full of flowers. Luke did his best to wave her off, but she insisted that it was all included in the price and they would just go to waste this weekend anyway. She also left a welcome basket that she refused to take back. "It comes with the room." she said as she waved them off and left.

He glanced at the contents of the thing after shutting the door behind her and couldn't help but feel the heat creeping up his neck at what we found there. His eyes landed briefly on something purple, latex and distinctly phallic and he cleared his throat.

He looked up to find Penelope had gone back to her dinner. He sat the huge arrangement aside and tried to imagine how he was going to save himself from having to watch her unload it in front of him.

He silently thanked God for his dark coloring hoping it was enough to keep the rash of heat from showing on his cheeks and neck. He had always been more than a little self conscious when it came to sex. This whole thing might be more than his modest upbringing could handle.

"Do you mind if I hit the shower real quick before you go for a swim?" he asked.

"Of course not. I don't want to feel rushed. I haven't had a bath in so long, I want to savor every second of it." She told him.

"You don't have a bath?"

"Nope, only a shower, no tub."

He sat back in his chair and took a drink from his wine glass. "I'm not sure I understand baths." He commented, offhandedly.

"Well, you fill the tub with water and get into it," she explained slowly. "There really isn't that much to understand."

"Why not just take a shower? It's faster. It's easier."

She laughed. "That would be true if baths were for getting clean."

He raised his eyebrows at her. "Baths aren't for getting clean."

"No, Silly, baths are for soaking in. I actually rinse off in the shower before getting into a bath."

"So you take a shower before you take a bath?"

He couldn't help but lean forward again. She was just so damn intriguing. Trying to figure out how her brain worked was one of his favorite activities.

"Yeah, I read somewhere that you carry your entire day around on your skin, like particles from all the places you've been. Just the thought of the sidewalk between my apartment and the coffee shop on the corner makes me shiver. I do NOT want to soak in that."

The lights were low. The fire was crackling softly in the background. It's glow caught her hair and made it look like spun glass as it danced around her shoulders. Her blue eyes sparkled as she babbled on animatedly. It was the greatest show he had ever seen. He had no idea what she was talking about really. Was she still going on about baths? He really didn't care. He just didn't want it to end. He laughed when she regaled him of stories about fighting her brothers over their one shared bathroom when she was young. He admitted that his mother had always been a fan of baths over showers, as well.

When he reached for the wine bottle again, he was surprised to notice it was over half gone. He hadn't realized they'd been talking so long.

He filled her glass, then got up and shoved the bottle into the basket. "I'll just be a minute." He told her. Taking up the basket as well as his go bag. "Then it's all yours for however long you want it."

She nodded in thanks and got up to retrieve the laptop from her bag. "I'm not usually a patient person, but for you, I'll make an exception," she said as she settled back into the chair by the fire.

There was that damn double innuendo again. He couldn't possibly be imagining it if it was happening this often.


	4. Chapter 4

Penny closed her laptop with a sigh of frustration. She knew there was no WI-FI before opening the thing, but she hadn't been able to help herself. She had to see it for herself. But there she was. It was now confirmed. She was more or less completely cut off from the rest of the world.

She heard the shower start and corrected herself. She was all alone with Luke Alvez; sexy, funny, smart, compassionate, warmhearted Luke Alvez. How had she not noticed how many of her boxes he ticked before now? She knew the sexy box. She'd known that the moment he walked into her unit. He was the kind of guy it almost hurt to look at directly, like the Sun, or an eclipse. Somethings were just too much to witness fully, they had to be side-eyed or squinted at. She'd learned the other things as she had gotten to know him, beyond the charming, crocked smile and the dopey, milk chocolate brown eyes.

She'd known for a while that what she felt for him was more than a stupid crush. She'd never admit it out loud and she was certain if she just ignored it, it would go away eventually. That had worked in the past. The thing with Derek had been harmless but it hadn't been completely that way at first, at least not for her.

After a while, her feelings for him had gone away or at least adapted to something she could work with. In the end, she couldn't have been happier with the way things turned out for Derek.

She wasn't sure she could say the same thing for Luke. She hated seeing him with Lisa. It had bothered her more than she had intended to let it. Something was overriding her good senses when it came to him. Something she had never had a problem with before. She liked to believe that she was in control of her emotions, not the other way around.

She took her glasses off and sat them on one of the bedside tables. Then she gave her tired eyes a fitful rub. It had been a long day. Flying always made her tired.

Her mind wandered to the shower and all the exposed, bronzed, soaped up skin that was inside of it, but before she could let it linger there for too long, she focused her attention on the fire that was roaring away happily beside her chair. It was warm and comforting. Like Luke's arms had been on more than one occasion when she'd need him.

She felt her insides tighten when she thought about the fact that she was essentially trapped in this tiny little room with him, possibly for a good, long while. How the hell was she supposed to keep everything she was feeling from showing on her face? How was she ever going to hide anything from him? He spent his days reading people, scrutinizing their every move. They weren't supposed to profile each other, but what would a few hours of boredom do to someone like Luke? Would he be able to resist? Would she be able to fool him?

A few minutes later, he came out of the steamy bathroom looking exactly like he had when he went in, except his hair was wet and chemical free, giving it a tussled, curly texture and his beard was trimmed.

She got up from her place by the fire and grabbed her bag to take with her to the bathroom.

"I started your bath. Looks like that thing is going to take a minute to fill. I hope it isn't too hot. I like mine pretty steamy." He told her as he grabbed the TV remote and flopped down on the left side of the bed.

"So do I," she mumbled, taken aback for a moment by how good he smelled as he brushed past her. And now there he was stretched out on his back, with his mused hair and smelling like that and the fire was crackling in the background and every single light in the freaking, romantic, couples room resembled a candle...

He gave her a funny look and she realized she was just standing there staring at him and taking all this in with her mouth open and God knows what written on her face.

She grabbed her bag and dashed into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her, effectively blocking out whatever he was doing to her.

That was until she turned around and saw that he had not only started her bath, but added bubble bath, poured her a glass of wine and left his phone on the counter playing some mix of soft jazz music that was almost hypnotic. He'd lit several, aromatic candles around the room and laid out an overly fluffy beige towel on the table by the tub.

He had made her a bath. As she slid into the warm water she had no idea how she was going to thank him for this, but she determined she would find a way.

_His touch was so hot it felt like it was burning her as he caressed his way from her elbow to her shoulder. His other hand was tangled in her hair, pulling it out of his way while inhaling a deep breath. Then he bowed his head and began to move his lips along the column of her throat. _

_She let out a low, indulgent groan as her heart skipped a beat. He closed in on her, essentially holding her in place against the wall of her office but she certainly didn't mind. One set of blood red nails dug into his bicep while the other sank into the nape of his neck. He must have taken that as a sign of encouragement and raised his eyes to hers for the briefest of moments before he found her lips with his own full, moist ones._

_One of his hands moved to her breast while he used the other to brace himself against the wall behind her. She held one arm around his neck because she wasn't sure she could trust her knees alone to hold her up much longer. Every breath he exhaled against her cheek made them weaker as he moved up her jaw with his mouth, like he was savoring the taste of her on his tongue. _

_Suddenly, he shifted, pressing himself more fully against her. She could feel the entire length of his burning hot body against hers and she grasped at him trying to somehow get closer still. _

_He tilted his head back and looked into her eyes while wetting his lips. Then he leaned in again and whispered into her ear, _

"Pen, you okay in there? I haven't heard you making any noise in a while. Just let me know you haven't drowned."

She spurted a bit as her mind was jerked back to reality. So it took her moment to reply. "I'm good. Guess I must have fallen asleep."

She gave herself a shake, emptied the lukewarm water from the tub, dried off and got herself dressed again. He'd never called her 'Pen' before. It was intimate and familiar and she wasn't sure how she felt about that.

She threw her cozy Pjs back on and took a look at herself in the mirror. She was about to leave the room with no makeup, her messy hair in a messy ponytail and not in the most flattering of outfit choices. She looked at her bag and considered her options. She could go through the trouble of reapplying her makeup and sleeping in it, despite the fact that it was terrible for her skin. Was a breakout and some oiliness worth letting Luke see behind the curtain?

She stepped closer to her image with careful scrutiny. It wasn't terrible. The bath had given her skin a warm, pinkish tone. Her complexion was clear and glowing, cooperating with her for once at least. The humidity had done incredible things to her hair. What wasn't in the ponytail was drying in pretty little ringlets around her face, framing it nicely.

Her t-shirt was baggy, but it was also v-necked, giving a descent view of her cleavage. The pants were the furthest from flattering. But the shirt came to her mid-thigh. She opted against the pants it was warm enough now. Instead she grabbed a pair of purple bike shorts and left behind the fuzzy socks as well.

She was arranging her hair when she dropped her hand and asked herself what the hell she was doing. She admitted that it looked a lot like she was fancying herself up for a man. But that couldn't be what she was doing because that was not what was happening here. Here was just two colleagues stuck together because of circumstances. That was all this could be. It was all it ever would be. Anything else had to be put out of her head.

She wondered, as she looked at herself so closely, if Luke had done the same earlier. Then she laughed off the idea. Why would he? Luke had never looked at her like that. She wasn't even on his radar. He was wonderful. And she was well...

Wonderful, too, but not wonderful enough for the superhero in the next room. He was out of her league. She knew that.

She splashed some cold water on her face to cool her warming cheeks and flipped the light off on her way out.

He was sitting crossed legged on his side of the bed, remote in hand but not moving as he munched on a piece of chocolate. A glass of wine sat half empty on his bedside table. She refreshed her own empty glass, then topped off his as well.

"What are we watching?" she asked as she settled herself conveniently on her favorite side of the bed.

He glanced at her as he went to hand her the remote and did a quick, yet subtle double take.

"I just stopped here. It's all yours," He pulled it back when she went to reach for it. " With a string attached, otherwise you'll have to fight me for it."

"What is this string you speak of?" she asked, eyeing him cautiously.

"If we are stuck here tomorrow night, I get to watch the game."

"Fine," she easily agreed, reaching for the remote again.

"And no stupid Sci-Fi movies from the fifties." he added.

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Fine. I suppose I don't really have a choice, now do I?"

"You could just take it from me." He offered.

She snorted out loud. "Yeah. And then you get the remote the whole time because we both know I can't take that from you."

Something passed over his face as he turned to fully look at her. She wasn't sure what it was, but what he did next jolted her to her core. He leaned a little closer to her and said in a low, gravelly voice, "Oh, you could, Chica. You just might have to get creative."

Her eyes dropped to his lips. They were so unbelievable soft-looking. And for a moment, just for a moment, it felt like he was going to close the distance and let her feel them. But he pulled back like he'd abruptly changed his mind and handed her the remote.

He cleared his throat and his wine glass. "I was just kidding. Of course you can have it. Watch whatever you want."

She took it from him and said a quick thank you before turning her attention to finding something to watch.

Boy he had been acting weird. She wished she was brave enough to find out why. Was he playing with her? Did he secretly know what he did to her? Was he the kind of man that would use that for his own amusement? Of course he wasn't. That was ridiculous. She knew him well enough to know that without question. So why was he acting crazy? One minute he was flirting outrageously. The next he was acting like she had cooties. It was infuriating.

She was flipping through the stations. The clock on the wall said it was ten o'clock so it was no wonder most of it was news. She stopped long enough to hear the weatherman talk about the unprecedented winter storm they were currently in the grips of before moving along. Her thigh was already uncomfortably warm where Luke's knee was resting against it. This was going to be torture.

After searching for nearly half an hour and finding nothing, they both finally settled on the antique looking radio on the dresser. He settled on something soft and easy and left the volume up just enough to be heard. It was exactly how she would have set the radio and she couldn't help but be impressed with that.

"So what now?" she asked when he sat back down, facing her this time.

"We could just talk," he offered.

She adjusted herself to face him as well. "About what?"

"Tell me about you," he suggested. "I still don't feel like I know you very well and we've been working together for a while now."

She rolled her eyes exaggeratedly. "I will concede that it does appear that you will be staying around."

"Now, three years and you're going to concede that now?" he asked.

She nodded solemnly. "I suppose you've proven yourself as more than a Newbie."

He shifted, causing his knee to brush hers and she involuntarily glanced down at the offending appendage. Apparently he read her reaction wrong because he moved again immediately. This time carefully not touching her.

"Does that mean I get a new nickname?"

He reached behind him for his glass of wine. It reminded her of her own and she did the same. This would be easier with more alcohol.

"I'll take your request under consideration. Newbie doesn't fit you any longer. I'm sure I'll come up with something appropriate though."

"That was a brilliant bit of deflection there. I'm impressed. But I still want to know about you." He told her.

She took a giant drink from her glass. "Like what? What do you want to know?"

"What do you do when you aren't saving the day with your trusty keyboard and mouse?" He chuckled.

She joined him. "I'm not a hero. You guys are the heroes, out in the thick of it, facing down evil, getting shot at. I'm just tech support."

He leaned in a little closer to her. "You just did it again. You really don't like talking about yourself, do you?" Before she could answer, he stopped her. "By the way, what you do is just as important to this team as what I do, more sometimes. I couldn't rush in to save the day if it weren't for you telling me where to rush to."

"Well, that is true, I suppose." She smiled, and hoped she wasn't blushing even through she could feel her cheeks warming. She wasn't the shy, bashful type. There was just something about being complimented by him that turned her into pure goo. "I don't actually do much outside of work. I mean to. I keep telling myself that I'm going to get out more. I just haven't been doing that much lately."

He shifted and took a drink from his glass before fulling both glasses up again. "Are you seeing someone? I can't believe I don't even know that."

She took a drink before nodding her head. "No, I haven't been dating. It's like when I leave the office I'm so beat the last thing I want is to deal with the bar scene or worse, the club scene. I mean I'm not not looking. But I'm not actively looking either, I guess."

"I get that. As a member of the newly single, one of the things I am not looking forward to is having to date again." He took another gulp. "I've never been very good at it."

"That can't be true." She waved him off. "You can't tell me you have a problem finding a date. I mean look at you." The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them. Those were telling words, incriminating words. What was she thinking? A glance at the glass in her hand told her the answer.

He was giving her a funny look when she ventured to cast her gaze back up at him. She wasn't sure what to make of it. His mouth was open like he was about to say something but nothing was coming out. He was just sitting there staring at her.

"I didn't mean," she sputtered. "I just, you know, you're an attractive guy. You know that. I'm just saying, it can't be that hard for you find a date."

Suddenly, he ran his hand through his hair nervously. "You think I'm an attractive guy?"

The words hung in the air between them for a minute before she was able to pull herself together enough to answer. There was something going on. She could feel the butterflies fluttering in her stomach and her pulse was pounding in her chest.

She thought about teasing him. If he was just fishing for a compliment he'd gotten it and he wasn't getting any more than that. But it felt like there was more to the question. Luke wasn't the type to fish anyway. She had no idea how this had gotten so weighty but it had so she decided to just go with the truth. "Well, yeah," she said around dry lips. "Of course you're attractive."

He looked away from her. "I've never really seen that." he admitted. "People have told me that before, but I've never gotten it. And yeah, I am truly horrible when it comes to women and dating. I never know what to say or what to do."

She took a deep breath and let it out before going back to her wine. "Sounds like you're overthinking it. You just gotta be you. If that isn't good enough she isn't worth it."

He found her eyes again. "Sounds like you're over simplifying it." He countered.

"Maybe but that doesn't make it not true," she shot back. "If you feel like you can't be yourself with the person you're with, then you aren't really with that person. You're just pretending and they have no idea. It isn't fair to either of you."

"That sounds like the voice of experience."

"It is." she said, quietly.

He drained his glass and put it aside. "We've had an entire bottle of wine." He commented, off-handed.

"Lightweight," she huffed despite the fact that she could feel her head spinning. She drained what was left in her own glass and set it aside.

"We are going to be screwed tomorrow if the lady downstairs was wrong and we have to work in the morning."

She shrugged. "It'll be fine. Besides, she didn't sound like she was guessing."

He stretched, the movement causing his shirt to rise. Penny tried not to see the trail of hair that lead from his navel to the waistband of his sweats. She realized she was unsuccessful when she look up to find him watching her watching him.

He looked like he was going to say something, but suddenly his entire demeanor shifted and he looked towards the radio. "I love this song. I know it's the wine. But dance with me."

He was around to her side of the bed before she could argue. And then she was in his arms and they were swaying easily to the dulcet sounds of John Legend singing about being in love and it was magical.

That was what all this had to be. A magic spell woven with wine, a cozy fireplace, a storm roaring outside a window, and John Legend. It all combined to make a powerful force. One that made her look up into his face when she felt his breath on her hair.

She felt herself melting into the pools of his chocolate brown eyes, eyes that had seen too much not to be a touch clouded in cynicism and pain, but still managed to not feel haunted by it. Out of her peripheral vision she saw him wet his lips with the tip of his tongue.

Neither of them said a word. Now they were just two people dancing in front of a fire in a boojie hotel room with the strains of _All of me _playing in the background.

Shit, how did she end up here?


	5. Chapter 5

Luke felt like a fish that just realized he'd swallowed a hook instead of dinner. He could not pull his eyes away from the huge blue orbs staring back at him. Somehow, even in the absence of anything remotely humorous at the moment, there was still a touch of mirth in their depths, a twinkle. He wondered if that ever went away. They were the color of a perfect, cloudless sky on a perfect spring afternoon, or maybe a swimming pool on the hottest day of summer. Inviting, warm, compassionate, and so damn pure. He had no idea how she managed that. She'd seen things, too. She'd been forced to watch surveillance of some the most horrible things imaginable over and over and over again as she searched it for clues. Yet, she didn't carry any of that with her. Her ability to cope with all the ugly and still remain so untouched was a marvel to him. He'd never meet anyone so unsullied.

He felt himself leaning in, pulled in by her like he had somehow gotten caught up in her gravity and couldn't stop himself. She was a tractor beam and he was caught in her grasp.

His head was spinning as words like co-worker, off-limits, bad idea, stop, screamed into his subconscious. But he was too far gone and she was just so much louder.

His need overrode his senses. She was so warm and he'd been cold for so long. She managed to break past his numbness. She was the only thing, aside from Roxy, that had done that since the war. She made him feel like laughing again, really, genuinely laughing, for joy, not obligation.

His eyes darted to her lips for a split second and it was like she just realized how close he was and what his intentions were because he saw her breath catch in her throat. He glanced back up to judge her expression. She was surprised but she hadn't pulled away.

Damn, when had all this gotten so hard. He just wanted to kiss this woman. He wanted that more than anything in the world in that moment and yet still he hesitated. He was inches away from her and moving in so slowly she had every opportunity to flee.

So why wasn't she? She had to know this was a bad idea, too. He had hoped she would save him, but apparently she wasn't going to.

So he did what he could no longer stop himself from doing. It was the barest of brushes, his lips against hers. He still wasn't entirely sure he wasn't about to be slapped. He hated that she made him feel this way, unsure, shy and confused.

This would all be so much easier if he knew what she was thinking.

His noise bumped against hers as he tried for a better angle while at the same time giving her a little more time to get away. Now he felt suddenly like a predator and he started to pull away, finding enough strength in that to stop this now before it went any further.

She must have seen something flicker across his face because before he could move out of her atmosphere, she rolled her eyes, sighed, and crashed into him.

His eyes widened in surprise for a split second before he had her. His arms pulled her into him as his lips pummeled hers with a nearly bruising force.

One of her tiny hands was against his cheek while the other was knotted into his t-shirt in a white knuckled fist.

His hand was tangled in her hair, holding her against him in case she suddenly changed her mind, because it was too late for that now. There would be no retreating from this and pretending nothing happened. As she allowed his tongue entrance into her mouth he knew in his soul that he was past the point of no return with Penelope Garcia.

This woman was the color in his monochrome world, the light that shined bright enough to reach the darkest places inside him, the one that managed to break through his numbness.

Then just as suddenly she was gone, one second she was there, the next she was standing beside the bed, well out of his reach, though he did make a grab for her.

"That is so not a good plan." she said, a touch out of breath. "I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have-"

"No," he cut her off as he took a deep breath and straighten his shirt ,trying to adjust to the coldness once again. "It was me. I was way out of line. I don't know what got into me."

"Well, you know, it's this place and we're tired and there was wine, and John Legend." she answered in a babble.

He glanced at the radio as he tried to clear the fog from his brain. He felt drugged, or rather like he had been drugged and someone suddenly threw ice water in his face. He was struggling to get his barrings back.

"I really am sorry," he muttered. "I promise it won't happen again."

She nodded but her face showed exactly how sad she was about that prospect. Then she got back on the bed. He watched her for a few moments before taking a deep breath and blowing it out again. He needed to get a handle on himself. He was out of control, whether from the wine or the atmosphere, or the knowledge that she was indeed attracted to him, too, he wasn't sure. Maybe it was all those things.

He was just physically unable to take his eyes away. She was right, of course. He knew that, but he could still smell the vanilla in her hair mixed with the lavender from her bath. He could still feel her warmth. The cold was beginning to seep in but he could still feel her and he didn't want it to end.

He joined her on the bed. She'd gotten the remote again and was again scanning the channels of the TV. She stopped on something and put the remote away before taking up her wine glass and settling back against her pillow.

Apparently she had put the entire incident behind her. He ran his hand through his hair and tried to do the same thing. His eyes drifted to the TV and he couldn't help but smile. "Moulin Rouge?"

"I love this movie," she commented without taking her eyes from the screen.

Secretly, he loved the movie, too. He settled back against his own pillows.

"Have you ever been in a secret relationship?" she asked, an hour later, though her eyes still never left the screen.

"Like that?" he asked, pointing towards the TV, "Once."

Her attention turned to him quickly. "Was she married?"

He laughed. "No, she worked at my Popi's bodaga. She was older."

Her eyes got wide. "How much older? Are we talking felony older?"

"I was sixteen and she was twenty-two, so I guess so, technically."

Penny smiled conspiratorially. "Did she teach you everything she knew about love?"

He couldn't help his own smile. It was just too good an opportunity to pass up. "No, Chica. I taught her."

He saw the blush rise in her cheeks but her face remained unphased. "So it was a short relationship?"

His smile widen. "It was plenty long enough."

She was smiling right back at him, undeterred in their verbal sparring match and he felt himself falling even further into her. "Did your parents ever find out?"

"No, but she got fired for selling weed out of the back of the store and I never saw her again. It really sucked because that was where my sister and I were getting our weed."

She snorted she laughed so hard. "My brothers and I used to smoke together, too. Well, they used to go off together and smoke and leave me behind. Then one day I had enough and followed them. I threaten to tell Mom and Dad if they didn't share with me. I puked so hard that first night."

"I never got sick. Val did though. Must be a girl thing." He shrugged.

"Val is your sister?"

"Valentina." He nodded.

"And you've never mentioned her before because..." she trailed off so he could fill in the blanks.

He opened his mouth to answer. Then look away from her. "She was killed after I left for the army."

Penelope reached out and put her hand on his knee. "I'm so sorry. What happened? Killed by who?"

He took a deep breath before he looked back at her. He wasn't even sure why he was telling her all this. He wasn't normally the type to share. Phil had known about his sister, but other than that, he hadn't told anyone in a long time. "It was one of the reasons I joined the F.B.I.. The guy was a serial killer. He killed eighteen girls before he was finally caught. He'd been doing it for years. The police weren't that interested because they were all Latino girls. Most of them undocumented. I was not about to sit by and let Val be just another unnamed Latino girl that no one cared about. I helped catch him. Then two years into his sentence, he managed to escape. That's when I joined the fugitive task force. He was the first fugitive I ever brought in."

"How do I not know this already?" she asked in awe.

He shook his head and took a drink from his wine. "I don't talk about Val very often. Not sure why I am tonight."

"Valentina is a beautiful name." Her hand was still on his knee and she gave it a squeeze. "I'm sure she would have been so proud of you."

He laughed, louder than he meant to. "She would have hated this."

"Why would she have hated this?" She gestured to him in general.

He looked at her hand on his knee and he could feel the warmth of her again. He wished he could move closer to her. "She was a junkie. A victim of the Opiod crisis. There was a car wreck and she busted up her knee pretty bad. That's what started it. She was okay when I left to join the service. But every time I came home on leave she was a little worse. The last time was really bad. I accused her of killing Popi. I told her she was the reason he had a stroke. It got really ugly. Three weeks later, she was dead."

"Oh, wow," she muttered. "That's a lot."

He shrugged. "Everybody's got a story, I suppose. That's mine, essentially. Your turn. What's your story, Garcia?"

"My parents were killed by a drunk driver while they were out looking for me because I was out after curfew." She said without hesitation.

"That's a lot," he said in response. "But you get how it was the drunk driver's fault, not yours right?" he asked to make sure.

She shrugged. "Mostly."

"Not mostly." He told her, earnestly. "Completely."

Her face twisted as she considered that. "They wouldn't have been out if it weren't for me."

He didn't try to argue with her. It was sound logic. He didn't agree but he could see where she was coming from. "I get it. My sister might never have gotten addicted if I'd been around instead of on the other side of the world."

Her hand tightened. "You can't know that. You were where you were supposed to be. I believe everything happens for a reason."

He tipped his glass at her before taking a drink. "Ditto."

She looked down for a moment before looking back up and smiling. "Touche."

Her fingers flexed into his knee again. He looked down at where it rested there, her nails a stark contrast to the charcoal gray of his pants. The second bottle of wine was half gone. The heat in her hand was pleasant, radiating along his leg and he couldn't help remembering what having all of her against him felt like. It sent a shiver through him.

She must have felt it because she slowly pulled her hand away and placed it back in her own lap.

The chill began to seep in a moment later.

He glanced back at the movie before turning back to her. "Have you ever had a secret relationship?" he asked, bringing the conversation back full circle, trying to lighten the mood.

"Unknowingly, I had an affair with a married man for a little while." She answered.

He raised his eyebrows at that. "Unknowingly?"

She shook her head. "I had no idea. Honestly. I was young and naive and I fell for every bit of his bullshit."

He gasped in feinted shock. "Penelope!"

She rolled her eyes. "There is no other appropriate term for what he shoveled. For six months I let him tell me how he traveled so much for work. He told me he was an orphan so he didn't have any family for me to meet. He said he kept to himself, so no real friends either. One of my friends got suspicious for me and started digging. He'd been married for four years."

"But you didn't know, that's not on you," he said, reassuringly.

She looked away from him, glancing at the TV for a moment. "See, that would have been true but when I confronted him, he gave me the 'I'm gonna leave her' bit and I bought that too, three more months worth of it."

He hated the look on her face, like a sky with no Sun. He moved closer to her slowly. He wanted to put his arm around her but he wasn't sure how she'd react to that so he inched his way towards her. Finally he picked his arm up and rested it tentatively on her shoulder. When she didn't move, or even flinch, he scooted closer and pulled her in at the same time. Her head moved to the crock of his arm and she leaned into him as well, accepting the shoulder he was offering.

"Aside from my parents, I think that's the worst thing I've ever done. I mean, yeah, I've hacked some things. I've created problems for people. I don't feel bad about that. They all deserved it. I feel bad for her though, his wife. She didn't deserve what I did to her."

"We've all done things we aren't proud of," he offered, lamely. He could tell that her guilt was heavy and deep-seated.

"I guess so," she agreed and he was grateful that she didn't ask him about things he wasn't proud of. She just seemed to know better than to go there and he appreciated that.

They sat there like that for the rest of the movie. Her head was resting on his shoulder, her body against his. He basked in the warmth of it, dreading the moment when she would pull away.

As the drama played out before them, Luke found himself lost in his own thoughts, thoughts of what it would be like to love someone like the couple on the screen, thoughts of little time and lost moments.

He looked down at the woman in his arms and she turned her face towards his for a glance as the credits rolled. "I'm sorry," she mumbled as she started to pull away, back into her own personal space.

Before he could stop himself he asked her, "Why?" Then suddenly he was on his feet, pacing in front of the fire. He had too much going on inside him to be still.

"Why? What?" she asked, clearly confused and a little startled by his abrupt movement.

"Why isn't us a good plan? Why are we sorry?" He stopped long enough to look into her eyes and pointed to the spot where he'd kissed her earlier. "You can't tell me that was nothing."

She looked away in answer.

"We're single and clearly attracted to each other. Why is this something we should apologize for? What are we doing wrong here?"

"You are barely single. We work together and I don't want to do anything to risk the team. You can't tell me either of us is thinking rationally right now." She waved her empty glass at him to emphasize her point. "And since when are we clearly attracted to each other?"

"I am plenty single. Lisa and I both know that we weren't working. She's gone and it's for the best. I know exactly what I want and what I'm doing. And again," He pointed to the fireplace, "that wasn't nothing." He told her, boldly. He had no idea where any of this was coming from. All he knew was that it was all coming out of a desperate need to get close to her again. He was going to make a fool out of himself over this woman. He could feel that in his bones.

If he hadn't held her, felt her in his arms, he would have already backed off. But he had. He knew she felt it too. She wanted him as much as he wanted her.

He watched her swallow roughly in reaction to his words but she steeled herself and went on, "The team. We work together." Her voice was quiet, rough.

"Leave them out of this. I believe they would be on my side here." He was pacing again. "They've noticed things. I've seen Reid eyeing me when he caught me watching you. And Rossi knows. Besides, this isn't about them. It's about you and me, that's all."

She didn't say anything for the longest time. She was just sitting there, staring at him with her mouth opened and her brow furrowed. "I'm not sure what to say?"she admitted finally.

She looked like she was the one finding herself on the fish hook now. He was scaring her. He could tell by her hesitation, by the searching look on her face.

He realized it was a first for him. He was usually the one with that look on his face. This wasn't lust for him. He'd been in lust. This was more; deeper, stronger, so much more. She clearly wasn't in the same place.

So it was time to compromise. He was making a gamble, a big one. Rossi would be proud. The stakes couldn't be higher. But he knew what he felt and he knew it felt right. He knew she wanted him. Maybe he could use that, build on it. It was a tiny crack in the walls she'd build around herself. He knew he wasn't supposed to know she was attracted to him. It was supposed to be her secret. But that cat had escaped the bag when she'd kissed him instead of letting him retreat.

"I paid for the room with my own card." He told her. He hadn't intended to, but he wanted her to know he wasn't playing around on the F.B.I.'s dime. "If we are stuck here. We're here." He shrugged. "Why not enjoy it? We are useless to the team without at least some Wi-Fi service."

"Well, we could talk to them on the landline. At least we could give our thoughts..." her voice trailed off when she realized how ridiculous that sounded even to her own ears. "What are you proposing?" she winced at the word.

"I'm just saying we can make the best of a not so bad situation." He was leaning towards her again. He just couldn't seem to help himself when he was this close to her. "Maybe we should stop apologizing and lean in instead."

Her eyes widened for a moment, then narrowed. "Lean in?"

"Give in. Stop fighting this," Again gesturing between them. He was close enough now that his hand brushed her shirt when he did.

"And when the road clears?" she asked, wetting her lips tentatively.

"We finish this case, and go home."

"And never talk about this again?"

The lie burned his tongue even as he it rolled from his lips. "Yes, we never talk about this again, if that's what you want."

"So we just pretend it never happened, like some dirty little secret?"

He was shocked to hear the touch of anger in her voice. How had he managed to piss her off this time? He was trying to tell her he wanted her.

He held his hands up as if in surrender. "If that's what you want."

"What if it's not what I want? What then?"

"Then we figure it out." He said with a hint of exasperation. "Why are you making this so difficult?"

"Because it's complicated and I'm not being difficult. I'm being practical, there is a difference."

He sighed and backed away but only a little. He wasn't sure he could trust himself being so close to her. "Let's not be practical. For the next few days, let's just be spontaneous and carefree. When was the last time you felt carefree?"

He reached out his hand. She stared at it for a moment before she took it. Then he pulled her up and took her over to the window.

Several outbuildings set around the back of the property, all of them nearly hidden in a deep layer of white. A dense fog filled the air, making it impossible to see much. The moon was high and full but look as if someone had draped a cloth over it, diffusing it's effect. Snow still drifted, now in a lazy, hypnotic rhythm, muting the world as it covered everything in a hazy, thick blanket.

"Right now there is no world beyond here." He whispered into her hair from behind her. "It's magical and beautiful. Let's get caught up in it."

For a moment he felt her let herself sink into him, even turning her head to the side as she rested it on his shoulder like she was giving him better access to her ear. His lips grazed the lobe with the barest of touches.

Then, she shook her head as she pulled away from him and went back to the bed. "This is a bad idea," she said.

He followed her, relentless now.

"Believe me, I have done stupider things." He told her when she sat back down on the side of the bed. She reached out and pulled him closer which he took as a sign of encouragement. But she hadn't pulled him all the way into her so perhaps she still wasn't completely convinced.

"Thing is, I haven't had a fling in – well ever. I've never had a fling. I'm not sure I know how to do casual, how to do this. I know it's all the rage right now, but," she babbled while playing with his t-shirt. "I've never even had a one night stand really."

He couldn't keep from laughing at her chatter. "Then maybe you're due." He suggested.

"Penelope," he was inches from her lips now and he was already basking in her warmth again. His lips brushed hers when he whispered, "Are you in?"


	6. Chapter 6

Oh God, was she!

Alarm bells were sounding. She could practically hear Luke Skywalker telling her he _'had a bad feeling about this'_, but she just couldn't move away from him.

He was chuckling even as his lips were capturing hers. His hands moved to either side of the bed beside her while she wrapped herself around him with fervor this time. This time there was an understanding. There were boundaries.

Somehow in the middle of a blizzard, Penelope Garcia had won the lottery. She knew that with certainty when she tugged the t-shirt over Luke Alvez head and tossed it over his shoulder. Her hand skirted along his tight bicep, something she'd been wanting to do for years. He was silky soft under her fingertips, just like she'd imagined.

His stubble-covered chin scrapped against her clavicle as he trailed kisses down the side of her neck. And both sensations at once was almost more than she could take. Her stomach flopped, she actually felt it turn over when his lips found her pulse point and he began to suck on it.

Then his hands came up and cupped her hips, holding them as he moved closer into her. She could feel his chest expand with each ragged breath he drew in. His fingers began a soft, seeking adventure up her sides, drawing her t-shirt along as they went.

She was completely lost in him as Luke yanked her shirt over her head. She hated the feel of the cold air as it hit her skin, as well as the sudden insecurity that plagued her mind as he leaned back to take her in. Her instinct was to cross her arms over her chest, but she fought it as he eyed her scrupulously.

Before it had a chance to overwhelm her, he was back against her, pulling her in and surrounding her. His kiss was reassuring and maybe even more passionate than before. His hands were on her breasts, cupping them in his palms as his thumbs moved over her nipples, bringing them to hard peaks.

Then, he was urging her backwards. And she complied, letting the hard planes of his body guide her to the middle of the bed.

She glided a single red-tipped finger through the splattering of dark, curly hair in the center of his chest. Watching as it traced the trail, bumping over the peaks and valleys all way down to where it disappeared into the waistband of his sweats.

His eyes followed her nail as he sucked in a breath and shivered above her.

The next moment he was at her breasts. He covered every inch of them with his tongue, his lips and even his teeth, paying special attention to the stiff pink apex in the center. He was tasting her, teasing her. "You have no idea how long I have wanted to do that." he confessed, sheepishly when he returned to her lips for a kiss. Luke Alvez was definitely 'breast man'.

"_E__res increíblemente hermosa,_" he whispered against her jaw as he nipped and licked his way over to her ear.

She gasped as she tried to make a mental note to ask him what that meant later. Right now, she couldn't have formed the words to ask him to translate.

He was still murmuring things against her skin in Spanish when he moved back down her body and shed them both of their remaining clothing without any more preamble.

Apparently, he was feeling like he'd waited long enough and she wasn't disagreeing with him. This had been a slow burn, simmering since the day he walked into the BAU.

There were both completely bare now. His body felt so solid and hard yet somehow velvety soft and yielding. She clutched at his shoulder, letting him take the lead. _Just this time_, she thought to herself and let her head fall back against the pillow as he nipped at her skin in all the right places.

His hands were propped on either side of her head and somehow through the daze he was creating she noticed the condom he had cupped in his palm.

The sight somehow seemed to make everything so very real. Her breath caught in her chest. He must have seen something on her face because he pulled back and looked down at her with a gentle, reassuring smile.

"We can stop this right here, Chica. You just say the word." He told her as he brushed her lips with his once again.

She buried her fingers in his soft, black curls and pulled him back to her, letting him know that changing her mind was the furthest thing on her mind. She was way past that now, too lost in him to backtrack now.

She let her fingers run down his side, across his waist and over to his length. He grunted and jerked into her hand when she grasped him and squeezed.

He kissed her again, this time dragging his tongue across the roof of her mouth, tasting her deeply. When he left her lips this time, his mouth was no longer exploring. It was deliberate and determined to drive her out of her mind.

The rest was a blur of groans, teases, first touches, sweat covered body parts and mind-numbing pleasure. She didn't think she'd ever been with someone so in-tune with her. He played her body like a master with his instrument and from the way he was reacting, he was right there with her, matching her stroke for stroke, moan for moan.

She couldn't remember the last time she'd felt so thoroughly and excruciatingly exhausted as she floated back down to reality.

"Remind why we haven't been doing that since the day you walked into the BAU," she murmured as she buried her head into the crook of his shoulder.

"You didn't like me." He answered, chest still heaving, even as he was pulling her into his side.

"That's not true. I never disliked you." She insisted.

He chuckled. "You were not very nice to me."

"That doesn't mean I didn't like you."

"So what? You were hazing me?"

"I didn't want you there." she admitted. "You were taking Derek's place and I needed a minute to get used to that. I'm sorry if I ever made you feel unwelcome." Her chest tightened at the thought that she'd hurt his feelings.

He took a deep breath and blew it out quickly. "Nah, I'm a glutton for punishment. It just made me want you more."

She leaned up so she could see his face, "All this time?" she asked, stunned and more than a little flattered by his admission.

His eyes met hers and held them for a long moment. "Yeah, Pen, since the moment I met you." His finger shakily traced her lips as he smiled at her. "From the second you pursed your pretty red lips and called me Newbie."

She could feel the fire building in her cheeks so she put her head back on his shoulder to keep him from seeing the blush.

A glance upward told her she wasn't hiding anything from him because there she was reflected back down at him. She had nowhere to hide and she wasn't sure she liked that feeling at all.

Luke reached out and took her hand. Gripping it tightly, he rested their joined hands in the center of his chest. "It's okay, Penny. I've got you."

It was a direct hit at the base of the walls she'd built around herself to keep from getting hurt. She knew she was in trouble. She was under attack and she was losing the war. The only thing that troubled her was the reason behind the assault. She still just didn't get it. What had caused her to become his target? Why was he making it so hard to keep him at a distance?

They were silent, quietly enjoying the sound of each other breathing for so long she thought she'd probably drifted off.

The next thing she knew he was out of bed, floating around the room in what was quickly becoming nothing but firelight as he switched off lamps and added logs to the flames. He slipped into the bathroom for a moment and returned with a glass of water which she took gratefully. She drank deeply before handing it back to him and watching his Adam's apple bob as he did the same.

Then he was beside her again with a brochure in his hands.

"What are you doing?"

He glanced at her and his eyes were hooded, sleepy, and sexy. She sighed internally as he put his arm around her, drew her in and kissed her like it was the most natural thing in the world. "Making breakfast plans and checking out what we're going to be doing tomorrow."

"What if tomorrow we're going to be catching a serial killer?" she asked, thinking about how disappointed she'd be if that was in fact what the day brought.

He glanced up from the paper and gave her a funny look. "I guess it will be the first time in my life I'd rather be doing something besides working."

She swallow the weight of those words and smiled, deciding it was time for a little levity. "That is because you have never before been signed up for a couples massage and herbal wrap. Or maybe a mud bath is more to your taste."

"I have never done any of the things listed here so it will all be an adventure." He told her with an eager grin.

And suddenly she got it. She understood. She was a convenient partner. Now that was something she could work with because thinking he was really just that into her, personally, was making her brain throb. It was more than she could compute.

If enjoying the experience of this place was what he wanted from her, she could do that. She could be the stand-in girlfriend in this scenario and she certainly had no problems with him being her stand-in boyfriend. He was right this was perfect. As long as it stayed right here in the Truly, Madly, Deeply Spa, it would be perfect. She was determined not to think about what it would be like to be around him everyday after this. She would deal with that later. Right now, she wanted this, wanted him. If a weekend was all she could get, she would willing pay the painful price for it.

They filled out the menu for breakfast in bed and signed up for nearly every activity offered only avoiding those that felt a touch too intimate or inappropriate like a two-hour private session 'to teach you how to tackle intimacy issues.'

Luke ran his hand across her hip and gave her that lop-sided smile. "I don't think we have any problems with that."

She pulled him in for a kiss. "I think we're okay."

He raised his eyebrow at her. "Just okay?"

She nodded. "You'll do."

"Man, you are tough on a guy's ego," he joked.

She laughed. "I didn't know yours was so fragile. Maybe we do need that session."

"I think I could better spend that two hours showing you I am way better than okay," he offered.

"Deal," she agreed, hardly able to hide her enthusiasm for that option. He was continuing to make it really difficult for her to 'play it cool'.

"The retreat culminates in a ceremony where couples consciously let go of their past difficulties and begin the process of healing. Before you leave with personalized feedback and a tailored game plan to maintain the health of your relationship, you'll indulge in a romantic farewell dinner date. Surrounded in such a dreamy atmosphere, you can't help but fall in love all over again." She read first to herself, then out loud. "This is a spa for couples in trouble? Are we in trouble?"

"It looks like it." He agreed, sheepishly. Then he looked back at her. "I didn't make it snow or decide to get lost here, I swear."

She couldn't help but laugh again. Her cheeks were beginning to tire from smiling so often. "You mean you weren't planning this all along?" she teased. "If we were in trouble you could have just talked to me. You didn't have to go through all this to get me here."

His white teeth gleamed in the light of the crackling fire as he laughed with her. "I wish I had known that. That blizzard is going to cost me a fortune."

"How did you manage that?" she asked mirthfully.

He barely missed a beat before he slyly replied. "Rossi knows a guy."

The easy camaraderie was something she hadn't experienced with many men. Kevin was probably the only other man she'd ever felt so comfortable with. Maybe this would be good for them. She didn't know how well they clicked until today. It was a revelation, though not a surprising one. They had spent enough time together away from work for her to suspect they melded well.

He went to the door and slid the brochure under it before returning to her. Then he pulled her up off the bed and folded the blankets for her to climb under. Once they were snuggled under the weight of a couple of blankets and a quilt, he had her back at his side.

She'd already grabbed his shirt and thrown it on to fight off the chill in the air, despite the fire. Now she was comfortably warm and perfectly comfortable.

Music droned from the radio, the volume still low, yet within the silence it seemed to fill the space nicely.

David Gates was singing about forgetting past hurts and finally finding love again and she snuggled closer into his side. "I love this song." she whispered into the night.

"I liked the play and the movie," he agreed with a tired sigh.

She sat up with a jolt like a spring had been released then felt stupid for her reaction. The look on his face was saying 'what the hell' before his lips could form the words. "I've never met anyone that's even heard of the movie, much less the play."

He chuckled. "_'I am descent. I also happen to be naked.'_" he quoted_. _"The Goodbye Girl_. _My Abuelita loves Neil Simon. She wanted to be an actress. That's why she came here. I remember working and saving for a month to buy us tickets to an off-off-off Broadway production of it. "

"That is so sweet. Again, how do I not know these things already?" She wanted to know as she settled back into his side.

"I like to talk about myself as much as you do," he explained.

"I talk about myself all the time," she argued.

He laughed. "Just last month, you spent a week riding the bus because that horrible thing you drive was in the shop. I drive right past your place, so does J.J.. Either of us could have picked you up. But you didn't say a word until the day you were picking that death trap up from the garage."

"Stop it. Ester is a fine car. She is not a death trap. She's perfectly safe."

"It isn't. When we get back you should let me go with you to trade that thing in." He told her.

She leaned back, unable to help herself. She wasn't sure she'd ever heard him being so misogynistic. "Because I need a big strong man along to talk to the scary salesman?" she asked, with raised eyebrows.

He looked at her for a moment before saying. "No, it's because, you think that thing is safe. Which means you don't know the first thing about cars. And who names their car?"

"I do. What do you call your truck?"

"Um, usually just truck, occasionally, on cold mornings, piece of shit, and more than once I might have implied that it was having sex with someone's mother."

Penelope laughed out loud.

He reached for her, pulling her back into his side and kissed her lazily, languidly and again it felt like they had been do that for years. It was just so natural and yet thrilling all at the same time. She rested her hand in the center of his bare chest and let out a contented sigh.

She fell asleep thinking about a wooden bridge and hoping it was secured under a heavy layer of snow and ice.

_I've been a really good girl. Please let this last for more than just one night._


	7. Chapter 7

The smell of coffee hit him for moment he opened the door and ushered the man with the cart inside. He patiently waited for him to set their breakfast tray on the table and leave before he poured a steaming mug.

After a tentative sip, he brought the tray to the bed and set it on the floor before climbing back under the blankets.

He pulled the sleeping woman into his arms with the intention of waking her, but he stopped and let himself just enjoy holding her for a moment before he started to nuzzle her neck with his nose, breathing her in.

When she began to stir, he added his lips, tasting the column of her throat as she let out a long, low moan. He moved along her jawline, leaving behind a trail of kisses and swipes of his tongue in his wake. When he got to her ear, he pulled the lobe between his lips and sucked on it until she arched against him. Then he moved to her ear.

"Buenos dias, Hermosa," he whispered.

Her lips held a contented, satisfied smile and he couldn't help the swell in his chest at knowing that he was the reason for it.

"Good morning, yourself," she murmured into his kiss. "You taste like coffee."

Her eyes were the warmest pools of blue as she blinked up at him sleepily. He pulled her in closer and kissed her again. He could feel himself getting more pulled under by her every second. Every move she made tugged him further. He lost more footing with every laugh, every sigh, every touch.

He hadn't let himself think about what happened when all this was over and he had to let her go. All he knew was that he had her now.

He knew he couldn't keep her. Keeping her would mean taking the chance of breaking her. He wasn't what she needed. She needed light and sunshine. She needed someone that could love her with their entire soul.

He didn't have an entire soul to give her. Life had stripped away so many pieces. He wasn't sure how much of his was left, but he knew it was less than she deserved. Anything less than everything was less than she deserved.

Her hands slide across his shoulders effectively pulling him out of the darkness that always threatened to envelope him. The darkness rarely stood a chance when she was around. She shined like a beacon keeping it at bay.

He ran his hand up her side dragging her t-shirt up as he went. When her breast was finally exposed, he twirled his tongue over her stiff, pink nipple before he engulfed it between his lips.

She sighed and dug her fingers into his hair.

Before he moved to the other breast, he reluctantly pulled away from her and tried to sit up, but she held him to her. "Where are you going?"

"Breakfast is getting cold," he said while laying a kiss on her chest. He could easily spend all day wrapped up in her but they needed to eat and find out what was happening with the roads.

"So this was what? A tease?" she grumbled as she sat up with him.

He grabbed the tray and set it up between them. "No, it was a promise for later."

She rolled her eyes and tsked. "Bad with women, whatever." she muttered as she doctored her tea with honey.

He placed a quick, surprising kiss to her to the dimple in her cheek and smiled back at her. "I'm only this good with you, Chica. Only with you."

They watched the news as they ate. He lingered over a fluffy, perfectly cooked Denver omelet with a side of hashbrowns. She seemed to enjoy her giant fruit salad and blueberry yogurt.

She asked before helping herself to a bite of his hashbrowns, avoiding his long standing pet peeve of people eating off his plate. He didn't mind at all when she went back for a second and then a third. They were well into sharing territory before he really noticed.

He stirred the fire after setting the tray outside their door and called down to the desk on the antique landline on the table while Penelope went to shower and get dressed. He has hoping to hurry through so he could join her.

The lady that answered didn't sound like the one from the night before.

"Can you tell me if the road is clear enough to get back on the main highway?"

"Oh no, are you not enjoying your stay? Perhaps there's something I can help you with," she offered.

"No, we're with the F.B.I.. My partner and I got stuck here in the storm last night," he explained.

"I'm sorry to hear that." She told him. "But until the bridge is clear I'm afraid there is no way to get to the main highway."

Luke did his best to ignore the jolt that zapped in the chest at the news he had hoped to hear. "You're sure the bridge isn't passable?"

"Not in this weather I'm afraid." She told him somberly. "I wouldn't expect it to be passable until it stops snowing and warms up."

"It's still snowing?" he asked, stretching the cord to its limit as he went to the window to see for himself.

"They aren't expecting it to quit until late tonight. Then everything will need time to thaw."

"You're saying we are stuck here for the weekend," he commented resignedly while his insides zinged with anticipation for the next two days.

"At least," Her replied sent a wide smile to his lips. "I'm so sorry. I see here where you and your partner have signed up for some of activities this weekend. You have a massage scheduled for ten."

His eyes had been locked on the bathroom door, which was opened. He hadn't noticed until he turned to go back to the table. Now he was frozen, watching her until the woman on the other end of the phone cleared her throat.

"Ah, yeah, massage at ten." He answered before hanging up on her. He crossed the room to retrieve his cellphone from the table on his side of the bed. The move lead him feet away from the warm, steamy bathroom and the blonde in the shower. He almost didn't finish his mission.

He snatched up his phone to get Prentiss number so he could call her from the landline. She was pissed but understanding. Something in her tone said she didn't mind as much as she put on. She left off with a promise not to leave them stranded in Nebraska. After all, they weren't making much progress because of the blizzard either. People rarely killed each other during extreme weather. Or if they did, it was out of stupidity, not malicious intent.

He dropped the receiver into the cradled and padded across the room like a cat on the prowl.

He had just stepped into the room when then water went off. He felt his face physically fall in disappointment.

"Did you talk to Emily?" she asked as she grabbed a towel. Then she stopped and looked at him. "What's wrong?"

"I didn't get here in time. I was trying but Emily wouldn't stop talking," he pouted.

She dropped the towel and stepped back into the shower. "I'm not sure that I got all the conditioner out of my hair. Wanna help me with it?"

He was beside her before she finished the question.

It was easily the most relaxed Luke had ever been. He hadn't been all that keen at first when the stranger put her hands on his back, but soon enough the incense that filled the room, the warmth of the oil on his skin and the soft sound of ocean waves breaking on the shore coming from a speaker, lulled him.

His head was turned towards Penelope who was stretched out on the table beside him. Her eyes were closed and a look of complete bliss covered her face. It wasn't her first massage. It was, however, his, well, except for ones he'd gotten in physical therapy when he'd been shot that one time.

This was completely different, so much more intimate and invasive. He'd never been a fan of intimate or invasive. He much preferred distant and guarded. This was far out of his comfort zone. But here he was, unable to deny the feeling of weightlessness in his shoulders. It was foreign and new for him, but not at all unwelcome.

He winced as the technician hit a particular tight spot under his shoulder blade but the pain soon dissipated under her skillful ministrations.

They spent the remainder of the morning indulging in the blissful peace that came with a herbal wrap, where they laid on a table wrapped in aromatic cloths, a mud bath, where they literally soaked in a thick, bath of mud that smelled like rotten eggs, but somehow managed to feel wonderful and a steam in a sauna.

After a mouth-watering lunch, which they shared with the other couples in the dining room, they were whisked off to a workshop. Most of the couples had already met during the meet and greet they'd missed the night before.

Everyone piled into a cozy, rustic room with a large fireplace flanked by bay windows on each side. Exposed rafters, patchwork quilts on the walls and a large wooden mantle overflowing with country charm completed the look.

The snow was still falling, though slower now. Still the windows were half-covered in the white powder. The space was littered with love seats, over-sized loungers and even a few high backed chairs haphazardly placed throughout, each overflowing with pillows, quilts and throws. Penelope and Luke took a gray leather chair and a half and draped themselves with a fuzzy, blue chenille throw. They watched as the other couples filed in and began to make themselves comfortable in their own private seats.

They were nestled in between an older couple in their fifties with the beginnings of silver in their temples and body language that said they were definitely working through some things and a younger couple whose straight backs and stony expressions said they might be beyond fixing.

Penny leaned against Luke. They hadn't been close enough to really touch all morning and he was ready to sink back into her warmth. He pulled her closer and inhaled the smell of her hair deeply as an older man came to the center of the room.

"Welcome everyone. I hope you all slept well last night. Again, I apologize for the chill. Our heaters are working overtime to keep up with the blizzard. I fear that are barely keeping pace." He told them with the confidence of someone at home with addressing a crowd. "I also want to give a warm welcome to Penelope and Luke, who found themselves lost in the storm. My name is Devon and I'm the councilor here at the Truly, Madly, Deeply Spa." The group all turned towards them with smiles and hellos. Penny sunk even further against him at the attention and he responded by wrapping his arms even tighter around her.

He leaned into her ear and whispered quiet enough for only her to hear. "I've got you."

"We hope you find something here that will help you enjoy your journey together." Devon continued. "That's what we're all here for. We all want to learn to enjoy our journey through life together. Normally I would ask what brought you here this weekend, but we know it was the snow. Maybe you could tell us a little about yourselves as a couple?"

Penelope tensed as all eyes stayed on them. "We work together," she offered lamely.

Devon smiled. "It would seem so," he indicated the way they were wrapped up together on the seat. "but tell us how you met, how long you've been together and where you're at now in your relationship."

"We met while working together. We've worked together for three years now and we've only been together a very short time." Luke offered up.

The older woman beside them beamed, "Ah, new love. I love new love. It's so fresh and exciting."

The younger woman on their other side huffed. "It doesn't last."

"Now, now," Devon chided her, gently "We talked about negativity last night. We are leaving it at the door, remember?"

"Right," she nodded with a forced smile.

"We are so proud to be part of your story, Luke and Penelope." He went back to addressing the crowd in general and Luke was grateful when everyone's attention turned back to Devon. He didn't like being singled out any more than Penelope did.

Devon went on to direct them to go around the room and talk about the obstacles they thought were standing in the way of their happiness. The younger couple were dealing with some pretty serious infidelity involving the woman's sister and the man's best friend. The older couple on their other side were having trouble with an empty nest and their impending retirement and how it affected their relationship.

When it came their turn, Luke was just about to tell them they had nothing to contribute really when Penelope piped up out of nowhere with, "We work together and neither of us is big on talking about our feelings. We've both had trouble with relationships before. We barely know each other on a personal level. He's got commitment issues and I have abandonment issues. We both work too much."

Now it was his turn to tense.

"Okay," Devon said, taking a step closer to them, "Those are all valid roadblocks in your journey towards happiness. How do you think you can overcome those things? Luke, do you have any suggestions? Do you think those issues will get in your way?"

He sat up a little straighter and felt his cheeks warm. He'd been in group therapy before. He hadn't liked it but he'd found it a useful tool in dealing with the realities of the world after the horror of the war. But those had been his brothers in arms, soldiers who had been through the same things he had. This was different somehow and it certainly hadn't been part of his weekend plans. Now he felt like he was dangling off the edge of a cliff.

"I think all those things are issues we can overcome if we really want to," he answered at last.

"If you really want to? Are you not sure that's what you want?" Devon asked.

"You're right he definitely has commitment issues," the younger woman muttered.

Luke squirmed as he noticed Penny was avoiding looking at him. "Like I said earlier this whole thing is very new."

"You've known each other three years, doesn't sound that new to me." The young man commented.

"Knowing each other and being together are two very different things." Luke defended himself.

"What about working together? Do you feel as if you will still be able to do that after this new step in your relationship?" Devon asked.

"Well, we have rules that we aren't exactly following here," Penny admitted. "We work as part of a team and it's a good team. We've been through a lot and we've finally found a dynamic that works for all of us."

"So you're afraid that this new dynamic will impact that balance?" Devon continued.

Penny began to pull away from where she was resting against Luke's chest but his hands around her waist refused to let her get very far. Was she doing this to try to sabotage this thing before it began? He wasn't about to let her talk herself out of this now if he could help it. "I would like to believe that we are both adult enough to keep our work life and our personal life separate." He told the room in general.

"Do either of you hold a position of power over the other?" Devon asked.

They both shook their heads. "We've pretty much equals." Technically, Luke could outrank her, but that had never come up and neither of them could see a situation where it ever would.

"Other than it being against office rules, is there any way your relationship might effect the working of your team?" Devon prodded.

Luke shrugged. "I don't see how."

Penny turned in his arms and eyed him intently. "There are a lot of ways it can effect us."

He gave her a look that said he didn't want to discuss this here and she seemed to understand because she resumed her position against his chest. "All I'm saying is we work in a high stress, high risk job. Things are bound to come up."

Luke hadn't really wanted to disclose their jobs to the room at large. He always found people treated him differently when they knew he was on the job.

"Alright," Devon seemed to get the hint as well. "How about not talking about your feelings? Is that something you feel like you might be able to work through?"

"I feel like we've already started to work on that." Luke answered, doing his best to keep the touch of sarcasm out of his voice. He still didn't understand what she was trying to prove by sharing their story with this group of strangers. But as soon as he got her alone, he intended to find out.

"You've raised a lot of concerns about this relationship, Penny. Luke seems less confused. Are you sure both of you are on the same page as far as where you are at with your feelings? Perhaps that's something you can discuss while we go our separate ways until after dinner." Devon said.

The group began to break up as couples drifted away towards their next activities. Luke followed Penny as she started up the stairs to their room. He felt blind-sided by her need to share. He felt unaware that she saw so many problems between them, but mostly he felt like all the progress he'd made with her the day before was gone, leaving them right back where they started.


	8. Chapter 8

"What the hell was that?!" He demanded as soon as they were alone and behind closed doors.

Penelope spun on him. She hadn't intended to say anything at the workshop, really she hadn't. But as she sat there listening to all the other couples and their problems she couldn't stop thinking about their own problems.

This had not been a good idea. They should have just stayed in their room and waited out the storm before resuming their normal lives the way they were. She wasn't great with change and she couldn't see any way that this arrangement wasn't going to change her life.

"I shared. We were supposed to share. That was the whole point," she answered with an edge in her tone.

Luke pulled his hand through his hair and began to pace like he always did when he was upset. She wasn't sure she liked that she knew that about him. She wasn't sure she liked that she knew him as well as she did. That wasn't keeping a distance. None of this was keeping a distance. And the guarantee was that the end of this whole thing would be painful. She'd just seen so many people in pain over their relationship. What was she thinking asking for it like she was?

"We aren't here to work on our relationship, Penelope. Remember? We are just stranded here. Why would you throw our whole lives out there like that to a bunch of strangers?"

"We have problems. I was hoping maybe this place could help us." She replied lamely.

He stopped and stared at her for so long she started to squirm. "That would mean we have a relationship we need to work on. I thought we were just enjoying the circumstances." His voice was no longer hard, or even annoyed. It was soft and vulnerable.

She blow out a harsh breath. "I mean we work together. Maybe we can use this as a tool to learn to work better together."

"You don't think we work well together either?" He countered.

"I didn't say that-"

"Yes, you did. You just did. So now we hardly know each other, we don't work well together and neither of us seems to be able to keep a relationship going. You're clingy and I'm a commitmentphob. This is getting pretty complicated for a weekend fling."

She went to the chair and flopped down in it hard. She'd forgotten for a moment that that was what this was. That was the last thing she wanted to tell him. That wasn't information he was supposed to have. She'd gotten so carried away by it all. She needed to do some backpedaling fast.

"You were the one that said you wanted this whole experience. You couldn't have gotten that if I hadn't said we have problems." She tried, when he said nothing to that she decided to plunge off the deep end.

"I thought maybe you could take some of the things we learn here and use it when you get home to Lisa."

His mouth dropped open like he was about to say something, but then he closed it and started pacing again. He was like a caged animal. She could almost see the frustration fuming off of him. His jaw was tight and he was mumbling under in his breath, in Spanish, of course, knowing she couldn't possibly understand him.

She stood up slowly almost afraid to startle him. "I was trying to help. I'm sorry."

He stopped, hands on hips and frighteningly intense eyes. "What do I have to do to explain to you that Lisa is not coming back. More importantly, I don't want her to. She was never what I wanted. She was never who I wanted."

She barely had time to think about those words before he was right in front of her. He pulled her into him and his kiss was almost bruising in its forcefulness. She parted her lips because he left her little choice.

His hands were on her breasts, warm palms and long fingers splayed over the generous mounds as he kneaded and caressed them. His touch was hard, rougher than it had been the night before.

She leaned into him. It wasn't anger guiding him now, it was passion and she let herself get swept away by it.

He moved them over to the bed. Then he sat down and pulled her down into his lap, never letting his lips leave hers.

She was straddling him, the red flowery skirt of her dress was hiked high on her thigh and he moved his hands under it until he found the secret she'd been keeping from him all day. When his fingers brushed across her uncovered moist center, his eyes sprang to hers.

"You've been walking about like that all day?" he asked. His gaze was nearly frightening in its intensity.

She swallow hard and nodded not sure what his reaction would be given the look on his face. She had no idea how to interpret it.

Before her next breath left her lungs, she was on her back and he was over her, pushing at the sleeves of her dress, trying to get to the bare skin. She put her hand on his shoulder to get his attention.

"There's a zipper in the back," she said with a seductive smile.

"Is that right?" he asked,.

Before she could answer, he moved off of her and flipped her over tangling her skirt around her legs. Then he was over her once again. She could feel his weight pressing her down into the bed as his lips found her shoulder. He nipped and kissed his way along the shoulder of her dress, following the line of skin just above the material, until he came to the zipper.

His fingers replaced his lips and his knuckled grazed her skin as he slowly moved the zipper down. His mouth was back, chasing the slow moving zipper as he lowered it past her hips. She raised up so he could push the material all the way off of her.

She started to turn back to him but he held her in place, grasping her hips as his mouth explored all the curves and plains of her back. His tongue swept up her spine. He sucked at her shoulder blade. He nipped at her shoulder.

When he brushed aside her hair and found the nape of her neck, she arched her back into the hot, wet kiss he placed there. He was stretched over her. She could feel his arousal against her upper thigh.

He reached a hand under her and found her center with his nibble fingers.

She groaned when he nipped at her earlobe. She bucked into him and almost came completely undone when he moved back to the nape of neck and began to suck veraciously.

He moved away from her suddenly and she followed. Her hands immediately going to the buttons of one of her favorite green shirts while he worked on the buckled of his belt.

He pulled his shirt off and gave it a toss, then climbed out of the rest of his clothes in a hurry. When he came back, she was kneeling in the middle of the bed, she'd been so taken in watching him undress she hadn't moved.

He came to her but instead of grabbing her again, he put his palm against her cheek and just looked at her for a moment.

"Dios, me vuelves loco," he whispered before pulling her into him.

His lips were so distracting on hers that she didn't realize she was laying down until her head hit the fluffy pillow behind her.

He was over her again, his mouth at her breast, but he didn't linger this time. This time he continued to move down her body, his mouth leaving a hot trail in its wake.

He'd had already found her center again and his finger was brushing teasingly over her sensitive skin. She tried to buck into his touch, wanting more, but he held her steady with his other hand on her hip.

Then he looked up at her and caught her gaze before looking up towards the ceiling for a split second. She remembered the mirror and her eyes locked there as he dipped his head between her legs and let his tongue savor her as he began to explore her from the inside.

His finger plunged inside of her, brushing against the perfect spot at her core while his mouth captured her bundle of nerves and he began to suck earnestly.

She watched him in the mirror as he went about devouring her like a man starving. When she couldn't take anymore, she threw her head back and closed her eyes.

He moved up her body with lightning speed, his hand replacing his mouth in driving her to the brink of pleasure. Then he was at her ear, his voice gruff, insistent. "Suelta, Pen. Cum for me."

She did, letting go and falling into the vortex of desire he had spun inside of her.

When she came back down he was right there beside her, stroking her hip, leaving light, feathery kisses on her chest and whispering about how beautiful she was so quietly she almost couldn't hear.

She looked up for a moment at the mirror above them. They were a stark contrast, her pale pink skin against his dark tan as their limbs tangled together. He was on his side, one leg thrown over hers, his arms around her, holding her tightly to him. And he was watching her.

His eyes were on the mirror across from the bed. He was intently following the rise and fall of her heaving chest. Then he noticed her smiling and looked up at her with a smile of his own.

"Told you I was better than okay," he said, smugly.

"I'm sorry I make you crazy," she answered, remembering his earlier words.

"Thought you didn't speak Spanish," he chuckled.

"Well, I know what loco means."

He moved, bringing his body over hers again and kissing her deeply, thoroughly. "You really do make me crazy." He told her, in between a series of kisses across her jaw.

Before he could get very far in his latest onslaught, she pushed him over onto his back and straddled his hips. "I haven't even started trying to make you loco yet."

He groaned deep in his chest and she captured the sound with her lips.

Her hands were on his silky smooth bicep, the feel like iron under her fingers. She moved to his shoulders, sitting back on her heels and watching her hands caressing him. His skin was fiery hot, velvet-covered steel under her palms. She traced each of his muscles with her fingertips, letting them brush over all the bumps and valleys of his chest. She leaned down to touch her lips to a scar on his shoulder, wondering how it had gotten there. Then she found another on his clavicle and gave it the same treatment.

She let her mouth continue it's exploration. A graze of his nipple with her teeth made him groan. Sucking on his Adam's Apple made him shiver. Tracing the contours of his ear with her tongue made his fingers flex into her hips. She noted every response, committing it all to memory.

She pulled out of his grip and trailed her tongue down the center of his chest. His eyes snapped open when she passed his navel and kept going.

Her hand found his generous length and she slid her way from its base to its tip. He was watching her intently as her tongue mimicked the movements. Her eyes locked on his when she took him fully into her mouth. She moved slowly, taking him as far as she could before pulling him out again and giving the tips a swirl with her tongue.

She looked up to find him with his head thrown back against the pillow while his eyes were glued like two round saucers to the mirror across from the bed. He watched her as she engulfed him once again, taking him in further this time.

Then suddenly she found herself being pulled forward. He settled her on his lap, planted his feet on the bed and plunged himself inside her in what felt like all the same move.

She gasped in surprise at the swift, deftness of the motion and then groaned at the feel of him filling her so completely.

He latched his arms around her shoulders and pulled her down to him for an almost brutal kiss that never seemed to end as he continued moving at a laborious pace inside her.

She could feel the tension in his arms shift as he grew closer to his release.

She put her hands against his chest and pushed away from him, leaning back and making him slow his movements. Then she waited, letting the feverish pitch of the moment dissipate before she began to sway slowly over him.

His hand moved to her breast, cupping it as his thumb racked across her nipple. His eyes never left hers as his other hand moved between them, finding her center and swiping his finger over it to the rhythm of her hips.

She felt herself falling the moment he touched her but luckily she found the headboard of the four-posted bed and gripped it tightly. It gave her enough leverage to move faster, while at the same time placing her breast right into Luke's waiting mouth.

She was gone the moment he began to suck. Her muscles clamped down on him and he was joining her with a primal roar that echoed off the walls.

It took her a minute to realize that she was laying across Luke's chest, draped there actually like a used up rag doll, while his arms were circled around shoulders holding her so tightly she could barely draw a breath. A rash of goosebumps was rapidly breaking out over her damp skin. The letting her fire was either out or died down to embers. Still he held her tightly to him until they were no longer fighting for air and their hearts were no longer hammering in time with each other.

When she slid to his side, he got up and just like the night before, he flipped off lights, reignited the fire and brought them a glass of water from the bathroom.

But this time there was something heavy hanging in the air between them. She wasn't sure what had changed or when it had happened, but things definitely felt different now.

She'd pulled back the blankets and climbed underneath while he moved around the room. When he set the glass down on his table, she raised them and he climbed in beside her.

With the curtains drawn and the lights out the room was only lite by the soft, yellow glow of the fire. It's crackle and pop were the only noises for a long while. He sat on the bed beside her staring dazedly into the flames, an unreadable expression on his handsome face. He looked as if he wanted desperately to say something but couldn't seem to find the right words.

She knew exactly how he felt.

His jaw clenched and relaxed several times before he picked up the glass, took a gulp and set it aside again. Then he turned towards her and cleared his throat. "The things is," he stopped and swallowed before trying again, "The thing is," Again, he stopped. This time he rolled his eyes and gave a self depreciating chuckled. "Damn, this is hard," he muttered. "Okay, see, I don't want to stop doing this when the weather clears or when we get home or whatever the hell I agreed to." His eyes fell to his lap where he was fiddling with the design in the quilt that covered them both.

"I don't want to stop doing this either." She heard herself saying. "What does that mean?"

He raised his eyes to her face again. "Why does it have to mean anything? Why does it have to be more complicated than it is?"

She sighed. "Because it is. You know it is."

"Because we work together? Is that still what this is about?"

"Partly, what if two months from now you decide you don't want to keep doing this? Where does that leave the team?"

He threw his head back and roared in exasperation. "Ay dios Mio, It leaves the team right where it is now. And what is that supposed to mean, by the way? Are you saying you think I'm the kind of guy that gets bored and dumps women regularly? I still remember the commitmentphob comment."

"Are you saying that isn't what you do?"

"Yes," He shook his head emphatically. "I'm saying you made your mind up about me the minute I walked into the Bureau and you still haven't changed it."

He was out of the bed before she could say another word. He threw his clothes on in a blur of angry, jerky movements and weighty silence.

When he finished dressing, he stopped at the door and looked back at her. "I need some air. I'm going downstairs for a while. I think we both need to think about what we're doing here. Maybe this isn't such a good idea after all."

Penny sat motionless in the middle of the bed watching as the door closed behind him. As soon as it did, she felt the sting of tears burning her eyes.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N - Sorry last week's update was preempted by a Game of Thrones binge watch before the premiere. **

"I heard you got a little lost." Dave Rossi said the moment he heard Luke's voice.

Luke wasn't even sure why he'd called him. He'd gone through a lot of trouble to get him on the phone even. He'd had to call Emily and get his room number after talking the lady behind the desk into giving him the cordless landline.

Now he found himself sitting in a straight back patchwork covered chair in the common room. The upside was finding out that there was a bar in the dining room. He was already on his second Scotch. But he was nursing this one as opposed to the first which he'd thrown back in one gulp.

"Yeah, I guess I did." Luke answered.

"Well we aren't anywhere on the case. Everything is still pretty frozen here as well." He informed him.

Luke sat up a little straighter and readjusted the phone to his ear. "Prentiss told me. I'm not calling about the case."

He heard the older man sigh. "What's going on? You and Garcia not getting along?"

Luke chuckled at that. "Oh no, we were getting along just fine. Better than fine. Then everything went to Hell."

"Oh," was Rossi's only reply for a minute. "So who said or did the stupid thing that ruined it all?"

"Thank you for not assuming it was me." Luke answered.

"No, I assumed, but I figured I'd give you the benefit of the doubt." It sounded like he moved his phone from one ear to the other before he continued. "Let me start by saying, I know none of this. I intend to completely forget this conversation ever happened the minute we hang up."

"That would be great." Luke agreed. "I really appreciate that."

"Oh, it isn't for you, Buddy. I want no part in your little shenanigans if Emily finds out. I make it my mission to stay as far away from HR as I possibly can. Now tell me about this stupid thing that you did."

Luke told him about the spa. He explained to him about the agreement they'd made which was met with uproarious laughter.

"You thought it would be a good idea to have a fling with Penelope Garcia?!" Rossi roared in amusement.

"Why is that so funny?" Luke asked, slamming back the rest of his drink. "I like her. I really like her."

"Oh, I know you do, Son. That's why it's funny. To tell you the truth, I've been expecting to have this conversation with you since the first time I saw the two of you together. Well not this exact conversation, obviously, but this thing has been brewing for a while now."

Luke sighed. "I suppose it has."

"And now you've gone and made it all worse."

"That wasn't what I was trying for. I was hoping to make everything right. It was supposed to be so great. I was going to spend the weekend showing her how much fun we could have together."

"You thought you could have a weekend of having your cake and eating it to and not have to pay for it somehow. You can't feel like you do and keep things causal. You knew that was never going to happen. If you were looking for something causal you could have found that anywhere. You chose this. You chose her."

"She was just a stupid work crush. None of this was supposed to happen."

"A work crush? You've been crushing for quite some time now, don't you think? Do you know what you call a crush that won't go away?"

Luke didn't answer. He wasn't entirely sure he wanted to hear Rossi say it either. But then again, he did go through a lot of trouble just to make this call.

"Some might call it love." The older man said and the words sent a weight plummeting to the bottom of Luke's stomach.

"You think I'm in love with her?" he managed to croak out through his suddenly dry throat.

"No, I know you're in love with her. I also know she's in love with you. The question is are you both ready to know that you're in love?"

"You're wrong about her. I know what she thinks of me and nothing I do changes her mind. I'm not the guy she thinks I am."

"Then do what you love to do more than anything else in the world, prove her wrong."

"How do I do that? I've tried everything I can think of. I'm not even sure I should be trying."

"What does that mean?" Rossi asked, concern lacing his tone.

Luke fiddled with the empty glass in his hand before setting on the small table beside the chair. "She deserves better."

"She deserves whatever makes her happy and you, my friend, seem to be what does that the most."

"Maybe I am exactly what she thinks. What if I get bored and want to leave?"

Rossi laughed. "First of all, I can't see any man ever getting bored with Penelope Garcia. And Secondly, you haven't gotten bored in three years. I don't believe that qualifies as fleeting attention. Try this, tell me something about her that makes you nuts."

"She does this thing when she's mad, like really mad, where she puts her hands on her hips and points her toe. Then she just comes alive, even more alive than she normally is, which is a lot."

Dave chuckled. "I said tell me something that makes you nuts."

"It does," Luke insisted. "It makes me crazy."

"Then why are you smiling?"

He didn't realize he was until he said it.

"Shit," Luke muttered. "What the hell do I do now?"

"How about telling her the truth? I know you. I used to be you. What you have to do is tell her all of it, everything you are normally too chicken shit to say out loud to another person."

"I can't do that. I wouldn't even know where to start. Have you ever done that? Just laid it all out there like that?" Luke countered, immediately frozen inside at just the idea.

"Yeah, I did, finally. You saw the results of that experiment when you attended my wedding." Rossi answered without hesitation.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Emily had been expecting the call since Luke mysteriously asked her for Dave Rossi's room number. She told Penelope as much when she answered the phone.

"Luke is talking to Rossi right now?" she asked, confused.

"I'm guessing yeah. Do I want to know what they are talking about?"

"They're probably talking about that game Luke wanted to watch. Anyway, what room is J.J. staying in? I want to talk to her about my Godson."

"Ah-uh," she mumbled before rattling off the number. "Before I go let me just say that whatever all this is about, I know I can't know things but that doesn't mean that I'm not here for you, routing for you."

"Thank you. That means a lot." Penelope said, tearing up again at the sentiment.

"I hope it helps."  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"So you got lost and ended up at a couple's spa?" J.J. asked after Penny quickly explained their situation.

"Yeah."

"With the guy you've been lusting after for three years?"

"Yeah."

There was silence for a moment. Before J.J. finally said, "So, how's that working out?"

"Okay, here's the thing. I might have started a causal sexual relationship this weekend and I'm not sure I'm doing it right."

"So it's working out pretty well, apparently. What's got you calling me instead of wrapped around someone in front of a roaring fire?

"I'm having trouble with the casual part, I guess." Penelope answered after considering it for a moment. Maybe she was saying all this wrong. She felt like she'd been saying everything wrong all night. She chuckled inwardly when she considered whether Luke might have actually screwed her brains out. She was feeling especially stupid suddenly.

"I could have seen that coming. What happened?"

Penny started the story at the beginning, glancing towards the door every few minutes in case Luke returned. She wasn't sure how he'd feel about her sharing information with her friend. She stopped feeling guilty when she remembered he was on the phone with Rossi. She was positive they were not talking about a ball game.

"You know that's not him, right?" J.J. said when Penelope told her what she'd said that turned everything to crap.

She thought about that before she answered. "I want to know that. I really do."

"He's a nice guy, a good guy. He isn't this Latin Lothario you have built up in your mind. You have to know that by now."

"I think I know that but I've been wrong about men before." Penelope admitted.

J.J. didn't answer for a minute. "The fact that you like him doesn't mean there is something wrong with him, Penny."

"It's just been a long time since I've liked anyone as much as I like him. I don't like that."

"You don't like that you like him so much?" J.J. asked, clearly confused.

"No, I don't want to like him this much. I don't want him to be so great." She insisted.

"Why not? Why isn't this a good thing? You like him a lot. Clearly he likes you. This is a good thing."

"No, it isn't because these are long term feelings, big feelings and Luke Alvez is not a long term, big feelings guy. Remember the part where I said I started a casual sexual relationship? That's all this is as far as he's concerned and I really want to be fine with that. But I'm not fine. I'm not casual. I've never been a casual girl. I'm an 'all-in' girl."

"If you aren't feeling so casually towards him, I think you should tell him that. Maybe you could just talk to him, tell him what you're feeling." J.J. suggested.

Penelope felt a lump gather in her throat, but she swallowed it down. "What if he isn't feeling more than casual about me? I mean, what am I thinking here? He's Superman and I am not Lois Lane."

"No, you're Wonder Woman. Tara agrees with me," J.J. said.

"Tara has been listening in this whole time?"

"We're sharing a room. I didn't go in the hall to talk to you. And she's on my side. She says talk to him. She's team Garvez all the way. So am I."

"Garvez?" Penny laughed.

"It was either that or Lunny." J.J. answered.

"Alright, I'll talk to him." she replied with a deep breath.

"Who knows? Maybe he'll tell you he loves you, too and you'll live happily ever after and there will be nothing but rainbows and puppies in your future."

"You know how much I like rainbows and puppies, but how often does that really happen?"

"All the time. You've both been through a lot lately. You're due for some rainbows and puppies," J.J. said, earnestly.

Her back stiffened when the door's handle started to move. "I have to go. He's back," she whispered quickly before hanging up the phone.

She hadn't bothered to turn on any lights so she was sitting in the firelight. She quickly swiped her hand across her eyes to make sure they were dry before he stepped inside.

"Dinner is starting downstairs in the dining room," he said with his back against the door. "I'm sorry," he said when he found her in the near darkness. "I shouldn't have stormed out like that."

"No, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to ruin our weekend."

"Do you want to go down and eat?"

"Yeah," she answered, before getting up and heading towards the bathroom. "That sounds good. Just give me a minute to get ready."

Dinner smelled delicious but she had no idea how it tasted. Everything felt like it was muted as she sat across the table from him in near silence. She didn't eat much, spending her time instead pushing her food around on the plate without ever actually taking a bite. She had managed to down her first glass of wine though.

"Are you going to eat that or play with it all night?" Luke asked after a while.

She sat her fork down on her plate. "I guess I'm just not very hungry."

He gave her a look before putting his own fork down as well. "Maybe we should have just stayed upstairs and talked."

"Maybe," she agreed.

The cozy, intimate room offered a small section to the side where a few couples were dancing to the piano music that was playing softly in the background.

Luke stood up and offered her his hand. "How about we go dance instead?"

She looked at his hand for a moment. A part of her wanted to tell him no. She wanted to say they should be going back upstairs and hashing everything out.

But a larger part of her wanted to just be with him a little longer, so she took his hand and he led her to the dance floor.

He pulled her tight against him and began to sway to the soft sounds when she suddenly recognized the music as a song. It was the instrumental version, but it was a song she knew well.

Her breath caught in her throat when Luke leaned in and whispered against her hair, "It's okay, Pen. I've got you."

She pulled back from him and looked up into his face. "Do you?"

He leaned in and kissed her. "Always," he answered into her ear as he pulled her back to him again. "Right now, let's just be here in this place where we're tired and there's wine and John legend."

She smiled remembering telling him the same thing the night before and nodded before resting her head back on his chest.

The sound of him humming along to the music vibrated against her ear and she nestled in closer, enjoying the sensation.

Then he leaned in to her ear again and whispered with the music, "_'You're crazy and I'm out of my mind.'_ They're playing our song."

Penelope smiled again and pressed in closer still. Maybe there would be rainbows and puppies after all.


	10. Chapter 10

Whatever levity they found managed to slip away as they trudged up the stairs to their room. By the time Luke closed the door behind them and she'd kicked off her killer blueberry colored heels, the air had turned heavy. She might even call the mood grim if she were a less optimistic person.

He flipped on the lamp on her bedside table and sat down long enough to take his own shoes off as well.

The staff had been through while they were at dinner. There was a basket on the table overflowing with complimentary gifts along with two fresh bottles of wine. The sheets were fresh and turned down, the bathroom clean and sparkling. It was impressive work given the limited amount of time they'd been away. There was even a chocolate covered cherry sitting on each of their pillows.

She noticed that the fire was roaring when Luke started to pace in front of it.

"I don't even know how all this got so messed up," he said, after a minutes past filled with a weighty silence.

She sat down at the table and crossed her legs. "It was me. I messed this up. And I'm sorry."

He stopped and looked at her for a moment before continuing his pacing. "No, it was me. This wasn't a good idea. We shouldn't have started this."

She felt her stomach flop as tears began to burn her eyes. "You're right. We shouldn't have," she agreed, blinking rapidly. She had known all along that this was too good to be true. She'd been waiting for the other shoe to drop since he first kissed her. Now here it was, dropping soundly on her head. He regretted even starting this.

He came over to the table and sat down but only for a second then he was on his feet again. He snatched up the wine glasses, opened a bottle and poured them both a glass.

She took it, gulped it down and filled it again while he watched. Then he did the same.

"We can just pretend none of this ever happened and go back to being colleagues and friends, if that's what you want," she offered, giving him the out it looked like he was desperately searching for.

He put his glass down on the table and looked at her. "Can we?" he asked. When she didn't immediately answer, he tried again. "Is that what you want?"

She shook her head slowly. "I'm not sure."

He took a drink from his glass, licked his lips and got up again. "You know what, I can't do this. We are getting nowhere here because neither of us wants to just say what we're thinking. This is crazy. You make me so crazy." His voice rising in volume with his frustration level.

"You keep saying that but I don't know whether it's a good thing or a bad thing?" Penelope yelled, matching him as she sprang to her feet.

He came to a stop right in front of her, his expression hard as he looked down at her from his superior height. "I told you earlier I don't want to stop doing this, and I don't."

"You want to keep seeing each other when we get home?" she asked, needing some clarity from him.

He nodded. "You said you didn't want to stop either," he reminded her.

"You said we never should have started this." she countered.

He shook his head. "I didn't mean that. I just wish it hadn't started like this." His arms came around her and she stepped into them. "I did this whole thing wrong."

She let herself rest there for a moment, her ear against his solid chest as she listened to his heart steadily thumbing. Then, somewhere in the very depths of her soul she found the strength to pull away from him. She quickly sat down again to keep the temptation of sliding back up against him out of reach. She needed to think and she couldn't do that when he was touching her.

"I think the problem is that we just got too caught up in this place and the other couples and their problems and we forgot that this is supposed to just be a casual thing. It doesn't feel very casual anymore, Luke."

His shoulders slumped as he let out a sigh and plopped down into the other chair. "No, it doesn't, Pen." he agreed.

She watched him for a moment, begging him with her eyes to give her some clue that she wasn't wrong about the nature of his intentions. He gave her nothing, instead sitting in his chair, pitched forward with his elbows resting on his knees and his fingers interlaced. His eyes were on the floor at his feet. Whatever he found there must have been fascinating because his attention never waived from that spot.

His body language was as confusing as his words. Words that somehow managed to pull her in one minute and shove her back the next. She didn't know what to say or do to fix this and her brain hurt from trying.

Still, she had to salvage this whole thing. She wasn't ready to not feel him again. She wasn't ready to not kiss him again. She wasn't ready to let him go.

She cleared her throat and sat up a little straighter. "So we just need to remember to keep this in perspective. We aren't a couple in trouble. We are two people who enjoy each others company taking advantage of an opportunity to spend some time together. As long as we remember that, we'll be fine."

His eyes found hers immediately and he opened his mouth like he was about to say something but he closed it again and nodded his head as his gaze found the floor once again. "You're right. We should be enjoying ourselves. This got way out of hand."

Penny tried to mustered a genuine smile. She hoped it looked better than it felt. "Let's watch that game you wanted to see." She suggested, moving to the bed and grabbing the remote.

He joined her finally, pulling himself out of the chair like he weighed a ton. Her eyes went to him as he pulled his brick red sweater over his head and gave it a toss towards the corner. The black t-shirt he'd been wearing underneath stretched tight across his pecks and rose a little to give a peek-a-boo glance at the dark hair trailing over his navel and into his blue jeans before he yanked it back into place.

She suddenly remembered exactly why she was putting herself through all this. Her palm itched with wanting to feel that marvelous expanse of skin. Her fingers flexed with need to bump over each of those well defined abs.

He climbed onto the bed, propped himself up on the headboard with his pillow as a cushion and pulled her into his side. He pressed a gentle kiss to her temple. "Lo siento," he whispered so quietly into her ear she almost missed it.

"I'm sorry, too," she replied before kissing him.

She pulled away when she felt his lips curve into a smile.

"You keep telling me you don't speak Spanish," he answered her questioning gaze.

She jabbed his shoulder and rolled her eyes. "And you keep saying you're bad with women."

He faked some shock at her physical assault before he leaned up and captured her lips again.

They settled in and turned their attention to the game.

It didn't last. All Penelope could make out was that a bunch of really tall guys in sloppy shorts were following each other back and forth across a court in a powerfully competitive game of keep away with a basketball.

But then again it seemed to her that most sport competitions boiled down to a game of either, keep away or hot potato with some object or another. It was either that or tag.

Her hand was resting right in the center of Luke's chest. She let her attention turn to the gentle rise and fall as he breathed.

She glanced up to his face and found him avidly watching the screen. Slipping her hand lower, over his stomach did nothing to distract him, or if it did, he showed no outward sign of it. She stopped there for a moment and used her palm to slowly pull his t-shirt up. When she descended again her fingers found warm skin instead of cool cotton. She watched her red nail trail through the dark hair covering the skin she'd so badly wanted to touch a few minutes before.

She dragged her hand languidly down to his waist as she raised her leg a little higher on his thigh and nuzzled tighter into his side.

Another glance up found him staring down at her. She offered up an innocent smile as she casually popped the button on his jeans.

"Not a fan of basketball?" he asked with that lop-sided smile she loved so much.

She looked back at the screen and squinted her eyes since she had already taken off her glasses. "Sure I am. Go Cavs!" she smiled as she returned her eyes to him.

"Uh-uh," he grunted in disbelief as he went back to his game.

She made a fake stretch that landed her hand on his thigh and threw in a yawn for good measure.

"Sleepy?" he said without looking at her.

She gave his leg a squeeze before she started to move her hand deliberately upward while her fingers explored him. "Someone rudely keep me up all night last night." She nodded.

"Sounds like a jerk. Can I help you find something there or are you just browsing?"

"No, I've been here before. I know where everything is, thanks." she smiled sweetly and went back to her through frisking.

He shifted causing his jeans to slip down his hips, whether on purpose or subconsciously she couldn't say. The shift also caused her fingertips to brush against the edges of what was rapidly becoming an uncomfortable looking stiffness.

A glance in the mirror showed his eyes glued to the screen but there was a smile skirting the edges of his full, pink lips while he pretended not to notice her machinations.

She slid her hand across the ridge caused by his erection causing him to gasp sharply.

She lifted her eyes to his face and said, "Siento," with a smirk.

"No, you're not." he said after a hard swallow caused by her rubbing her hand along his length.

She shook her head as she squeezed him. "No, I'm not."

"So I'm not actually gonna watch basketball tonight, am I?"

She grabbed hold on his zipper and started to lower it slowly. "If you want me to stop, just say so."

He thrust his hips upward as she pulled the jeans off his hips and even helped her tug them the rest of the way off. They fell in a heap off the side of the bed.

His eyes darted away from the screen as she moved off the bed. He watched her lower the zipper of her dress, watched as she leaned forward and shrugged her shoulders so the materiel fell away from her breasts. He watched as she slipped the dress the rest of the way off. Then she climbed back onto the bed and started a languid crawl towards him.

"I thought you wanted to see the game," she commented as if she weren't on all fours in nothing but her underwear wearing a look in her eyes that said she was a predator and he was dinner.

"It's a commercial," he muttered distractedly. Now he was watching her breasts as they bounced with every move she made. Their lilac colored lace enclosure was proving not strong enough to really contain the ample orbs.

When she finally got to him she brushed her lips over his fleetingly as her hand trailed from his jawbone down the center of his chest. Then she settled into his side as sounds of the game resuming came from the television over her shoulder.

His arms came around her and he tried to pull her back to his lips but she shook her head and held herself in place at his side. "Watch your game," she insisted.

"Really?" he asked, dumbfounded. "After all that you expect me to watch some damn basketball game?"

She glanced up at him from her position in the crock of his shoulder. "Yeah, watch your game. We have all night. That was payback for the breakfast tease this morning."

Reluctantly he turned his eyes back to the T.V..

She waited, letting him get absorbed in the game before she started moving her hand downward once again. She was just about to the waistband on his blue and black stripped boxer briefs when she felt his hand move from her waist up the center of her back. His fingertip bumped along the ridges of her spine.

She shivered at the contact but didn't let it stop her from slipping her hand inside the front of his briefs. Her fingernail grazed down the length of his hardness.

Then suddenly without warning, she was on her back with him over her, capturing her eager lips with his.

She clutched his shoulders before pushing him away. "You are supposed to be watching your game," she chided.

He smiled down at her. "It's a commercial." His big hand captured one of her breasts. He grazed his thumb over the lace covered nipple bringing it to hardness.

He plundered her mouth with his tongue and she suddenly felt like one of those ridiculous women on the front of one of those books she'd never admit to reading. He was over her, dominating, forceful and strong and she clung to him, clutching his shoulder in a desperate way that was only second in humiliating to way her leg draped over the back of his thigh.

His hands seemed to be everywhere all at once. And everywhere he moved zinged with the imprint of his touch.

And then just as suddenly as it all started, it stopped. He pulled away from her, out of her arms and back to his comfy pillow leaving her chest heaving and her heart pounding.

She raised her head and watched the slow smug smile spread across his face with fury in her veins. The sound of game play resuming filled the room.

"What?" he asked in answer to her murderous glare. "I'm watching the game, like you said."

"Sonofabitch," she mumbled under her breath as she regained her compose and moved back to his side.

He pulled away from her with a look of outraged disbelief. "Did you just bring my sainted Mama into this?"

"You're Mama would be disappointed in the way her son was behaving right now," she retorted, finally regaining her place at his side.

"I've done a lot of things I wouldn't want my Mama to know about. Having fun with you is not one of them." He laughed.

"She'd approve of you being a tease?" she argued.

The humorous smile slipped away, replaced by the wicked lopsided one she couldn't ever resist. She watched it slide into place with a narrowing of his eye, the raise of his eyebrow and the dropping of one side of his lips. "I think she'd be fine with it as long as I promised to deliver as soon as the game's over." He replied in a tone that sounded like it was a threat.

She felt the shiver that started at the crown of head travel all the way to her toes. A rash of goose pumps threaten to break out over her skin. Her breath was shaky when she finally released it after realizing she'd been holding it for too long.

There would be no regaining of dignity for her after this. Every time he made her shudder. Every time her pulse jumped at his touch. Every time he heard her moan into his kiss. Every time he watched her breasts heave with her staggered breath, he knew exactly what he did to her.

She had been laid bare in front of him. He made her achy, wanton with need just like those ridiculously needy women on the covers of those books. How he used that knowledge would set him apart. Because she was a sucker when it came to men.

There was only one way to save face now. Mutually assured destruction. She had to let him know that he was just as vulnerable. She couldn't let him have the upper hand.

It wasn't like he could easily hide the affect she had on him. She knew that he wanted her. She wanted to make him need her, deep in his bones, the way she felt like she needed him.

Her hand went to his waist this time without preamble. She traced the swell of his erection with her fingertip. Then with her palm. She heard his breath hitch as she increased the pressure and speed.

His hand moved up her back. He impressed her with his dexterity when he released her breasts with the flick of his fingers. She paused long enough to toss the useless clothing away. A glance at the T.V. said the ads had once again started which is why his mouth was suddenly attached to the breast he'd been fondling. He swirled his tongue around the tip before enveloping it between his lips. The stubble on his jaw scrap across her sensitive skin as he moved to the other breast giving it the same attention he had the first.

She buried her fingers in this thick, wavy black hair and let the groan loose that she'd been fighting to hold back.

Again, he drove her mad with wanting him only to pull back when the game resumed. They went on like this throughout the game. She found herself actually watching it as she waited in anticipation of the next round of advertisements.

The back and forth had her head spinning and from the way his hand trembled as it stroked her hip he was on the same page. His heartbeat thumped in her ear as they waited for the next pause in the action.

He didn't bother to wait for the end, as soon as the Cavs took a comfortable lead, he was done. She thanked God the game hadn't been a close one. Neither of them would have made it if it had come down to the wire.

The nearly two hour build up left them both with little patience and a desperate need. He flipped the T.V. off, tossed the remote and researched for in what seemed like all the same motion. He was buried inside her almost before the plastic device hit the floor.

And she again found herself clinging to him like he was a life raft and she drowning. But then that was exactly how she felt, like she was drowning in him. His smell surrounded her. His warm, damp skin sizzled under her touch. She heard him say something in Spanish at the last second but she was too wrapped up in her own pleasure to make it out. Then his taunt, hard muscles flexed as he powered them both straight towards the abyss of oblivion.


	11. Chapter 11

He just told Penelope Garcia that he loved her. He knew because his tongue still stung from where he'd bitten down on it a moment too late to catch the words. Now they were out there, loose in the atmosphere. He could almost feel their weight pressing on his chest.

Once he'd stopped the sudden panic that threaten to overtake him, he braced himself, waiting for her reaction.

The reaction never came. He didn't know if she hadn't understood him, hadn't heard him, or just brushed it off as a 'heat-of-the-moment' response. A part of him was grateful. He hadn't started this relationship right. He still wasn't being honest with her. He didn't want to ruin that for them, too.

He wanted to find the perfect moment to say those words to her. That wasn't it.

He hadn't been able to help himself. The evening had taken a turn for the positive and he was riding the high.

He had decided to tell her before they left the spa though. He needed to let her know where he stood. He didn't want to keep lying to her. He didn't believe Rossi ascertain that she loved him too, wanted him maybe, but loved he wasn't so sure of.

He'd almost told her when they first came back to the room. It was on the tip of his tongue but something had stopped him. He couldn't get his brain to quit reminding him that she deserved way more than he could ever give her. That part of him knew he had no business extinguishing her light with his darkness. That part of him knew she was meant for better things than him. It was a selfish part, a part he wasn't proud of but he couldn't help the feeling. It was the only thing that had been able to break through his numbness, besides Roxy, since the war.

When she finally did speak it had nothing to do with his admission of love. She lazily picked her head off his chest and eyed the basket on the table. "I wonder what's in that. I love goody baskets."

It was overflowing with pink cellophane and ribbons. "I'm gonna go with snacks, maybe some candles, bubble bath and sex toys."

She got up, grabbed the basket and returned to her spot. He watched her shove the shiny, see-through pink paper aside. Then she pulled out a package of cheese and crackers on a tiny cutting board with an equally tiny knife. She laid that on the bed between them. Then she came out with an extraordinarily cheesy bottle of strawberry warming massage oil.

"Oops," he chided himself. "Missed that one."

Next was a six pack of humongous ripe red strawberries covered in chocolate and decorated with ribbons of icing. A small bottle of champagne followed along with two clear plastic flutes.

Two short pillar shaped lavender and vanilla candles came next, followed by a copy of the Karma Sutra which Luke rolled his eyes at.

Penny nodded in agreement. "I know. They've thought of everything, haven't they?"

After the book came a package of condoms which she held up with a smile and said, "Ribbed for her pleasure."

Luke reached in next and found a small plastic hot pink egg-shaped vibrator.

"Well, that's a bit of luck. I've been needing a new one," she commented idly.

He handed it off with a smile. "It's all yours. Enjoy."

It was soon joined by a blindfold, and fuzzy handcuffs.

The last object turned out to be a bottle of jasmine scented bubble bath.

"You called it." She praised him as she began packing everything away again.

He picked up the bubble bath. "I bet I can find a good use for that. I might even join you this time."

"Really?" she asked grabbing for the bottle.

"The shower is okay but baths are sacred?"

"Kind of," she replied, snatching the bottle back from him. "I've never taken a bath with anyone before. Kevin hated the very idea of a bath."

"Kevin did?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

She thrust the bottle back at him quickly. "Never mind, you can join me if you want." She paused and narrowed her eyes at him. "As long as you don't ruin it."

He took the bottle off towards the bathroom after promising to do his very best.

He adjusted the water, gathered the candles and lit them. She flipped the radio on to what was becoming their favorite station and turned it up loud enough to hear through the wall. Then she brought the champagne, glasses and strawberries from the basket.

He flipped the lights out before climbing into the tub behind her. She nestled up against him and he realized he was started to get used to the feel of her head on his shoulder. It was quickly become one of his favorite things in the world.

They drank champagne and fed each other fruit. They soaked in the warm water and listen to the music that filled the room.

The combination of vanilla, lavender and jasmine danced in the air. Her skin was butter soft under his hand where it rested at her waist. Her back slid across his chest as she shifted to get comfortable. He looked down at her feet and found toenails covered in cotton candy pink and decorated with tiny white dots.

"Pink polka-dotted nail polish?" he asked. "How does that happen?"

She raised her foot from the water after dipping it to remove some bubbles. "Well, I painted it pink. Then I dotted it."

He couldn't contain the laugh bubbling in his chest. "Where the hell did you come from?"

"The blanket I was wrapped in when my parents found me said, _Property of Mars,_" she answered without missing a beat. She dropped her foot and snuggled tighter into him. "I could get used to this." she sighed contentedly.

"We should make this a regular Saturday night thing. Basketball and a hot bath."

She laughed. "What do we do when Basketball isn't in season? Besides, my apartment only has a shower, remember? That's why this is so great."

"I'm sure we can figure out something to do to pass the time and my apartment has a huge tub." He answered, following a bead of water that fell over her shoulder with his finger.

"You have an answer for everything," she said in a tone that made it sound like a criticism.

He smiled and nodded, "I like to think so."

"You must miss Roxy when you're gone all the time," she said offhandedly as she ran her hand through the bubbles covering her chest. "I already miss Sergio and it's only been two days."

He sighed heavily. "I feel really bad leaving her with a sitter constantly, but she says she understands that I have to work. I try to spend as much time with her as I can when I'm home. I wish she had someone around when I wasn't though. She spends way too much time alone in that apartment."

"She could stay with me when you're gone overnight. I don't mind at all. You know I love her little furry face," she offered.

"She would love that and it would make me feel so much better knowing she isn't alone. You really wouldn't mind?"

She smiled back at him. "Of course I wouldn't mind. I love her. And it means you have to come to my place to get her when you get back in town. I might even charge you a fee." She teased.

"A fee? What is watching my dog worth?"

"We can work it out." Her hand run up his thigh. "I'm sure you can think of something to repay me."  
"So we're talking mattress payments here?" Her murmured against her ear.

She gave his upper thigh a squeeze. "Or sofa, or kitchen table, or kitchen counter, maybe even a shower payment or two."

He chuckled as he pressed soft kisses across her jaw. "I suppose I can handle that arrangement."

She was quiet for a minute apparently enjoying his ministrations before she shifted. "So what we have is an arrangement?" she asked, quietly, almost hesitantly.

He paused before answering. It was the right time, the perfect time to tell her he didn't want a damn arrangement. He wanted a relationship. But his tongue was suddenly two sizes too large for his mouth, the lump in his throat was the size of a boulder and his heart was trying to escape from his chest. He opened his mouth determined to ignore all those things and tell her what he wanted to tell her. What came out instead was, "Who's Kevin?"

"Someone who was a very long time ago." she answered like it didn't matter.

"A high school thing or a college thing?" he asked.

She shook her head, "Not that very long ago. He works at the F.B.I.. He's helped us out a few times."

Luke felt his stomach drop at just the thought of Penelope with someone else. "Not since I've been around."

"No, it was before you came."

"And you were serious?" He already knew the answer from her tone of voice but he had to ask anyway.

She leaned her head back so he could see her soft smile. "We were then we weren't and now we aren't anything. Why are we talking about Kevin?"

"You mentioned him." he shrugged, like he didn't really care.

She chuckled. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you sound jealous."

He shook his head. "I don't get jealous."

"I don't believe that for a second."

He laughed. "Okay, so maybe sometimes I can be a little possessive. Are you saying I have a reason to be jealous of Kevin?"

"God, no. We haven't been serious since I turned him down him he proposed." She told him.

He suddenly sat up dislodging her from his chest. "He proposed?"

"Five years ago or so and like I said, I turned him down." she said, her face full of confusion at his reaction.

Luke made himself sink back down into the water. Then he pulled her back in against him. "You almost got married." he whispered in disbelief.

She shook her head quickly. "No, I was proposed to and I said no. There is a big difference."

He still wasn't able to stop thinking about the mysterious Kevin and the fact that he'd almost lost his chance with her before he'd even met her an hour later when they were nestled under the blankets of the huge bed, listening to the soft sounds of the music from the radio and quietly watching the pop and crackle of the fire that lit the room.

Her head was resting in the crock of his shoulder, her hand lying in the center of his chest and one of her legs was draped over his thigh. The smell of her hair, the feel of her warm body and the muted sound of her breathing filled his senses.

He never wanted this to end. He was more certain of that with every second that passed. All of his reasons for holding back with her seemed to be disappearing as she continued to fight away the cold that assailed him with her warmth.

And he'd been so close to never holding her like this. He'd been so close to losing her before he'd even met her.

Could he risk that happening again? He honestly couldn't imagine why she was still so available and unattached. It was luck that had brought her to his arms, but luck couldn't be relied on to keep her there. He needed to say something. He needed to tell her how he felt.

He didn't know why this was so difficult. He couldn't understand why the words refused to come out of his mouth.

"Whatcha thinking about so hard? I can practically hear the wheels turning in your head." she asked, raising her head to see his face.

He shifted so he could kiss her. "I was thinking about-" It was as far as he got before the phone rang.

He padded over to it and answered a touch harshly.

"You said you wanted to know the moment the weather cleared," the woman from the front desk said. "I've just gotten a report from the police that the bridge should be clear to drive on tomorrow morning."

Luke felt his stomach drop to his toes. "Yeah, alright, thanks," he muttered.

Penelope was watching him, her blue eyes sparkling in the fire light and a soft smile on her full pink lips.

"What was that?" she asked when he didn't immediately offer an explanation.

Again, his tongue betrayed him, refusing to form the words he wanted to form and acting on it's own accord instead. "Breakfast. They wanted to know about breakfast. I ordered the same thing we had this morning."

The lie stung his ears. But she held her arms out for him and he suddenly didn't care as he climbed back into bed beside her.


	12. Chapter 12

The second she felt the bed jerk she came fully awake and upright. Being a Southern California girl her first instinct said, earthquake. But before she could make a dash for a door jamb, Penelope realized where she was and she was immediately confused about what had awakened her so abruptly.

Then the entire bed shook again and her eyes fell to Luke, who was still sleeping beside her.

His face was twisted in a grimace. She could see the tension in his shoulders. She watched his chest heave as he once again shifted violently enough to shake the bed.

She knew he'd had trouble with nightmares and terrors since his return from the war. They'd talked about it a few times. She remembered one time in particular when Luke told her about how bad he felt when Lisa had tried to wake him once and he'd come up swinging. He'd almost hit her and his guilt over the incident had weighed heavy on his conscious.

Penny scooted away from him, removing herself from him as slowly and easily as possible. After hearing his story, she'd taken it upon herself to do some research about living with someone with PTSD and dealing with the nightmares that often accompanied it.

He jerked again, harder this time than any time before. His face distorted even further and she heard a soft whimper escape his lips.

She gently began to stroke his hair as she whispered quietly in his ear, "Luke, it's Penny. It's okay. You're okay. It's just a dream."

She continued that way in a low, soothing voice until he began to relax and eventually his eyes fluttered open.

It took him a moment to take in his surroundings and realize where he was, but the moment he did, he reached for her and pulled her into his side.

He held her earnestly against him as his chest still heaved with lingering panic. She continued her low, pacifying lament until his breathing returned to normal and she could no longer feel his heart pounding against her breast.

He took in one last, long, steadying breath before he eased his hold on her and allowed her a bit of breathing room. Once he did, she slipped out of bed, went to the bathroom and returned with a glass of water for him.

He silently sat up and took it, drinking it down greedily before setting the empty glass aside. She watched him closely as she moved back to her side of the bed and slipped back under the blankets.

Neither of them said a word for a long, tension-filled while. They just sat there in the near dark, side-by-side, staring into the fireplace.

Finally he reached for her and she went back to his side as they both laid down and got comfortable again.

"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked, still so quietly it was almost lost.

He took a deep breath. "No," he answered firmly. "I never want to talk about it."

"That's fine. I'll never push, but if you don't want to talk to me about it, are you still seeing your therapist?" The question was born out of concern for him, not a need to get inside his head. She had no intention of intruding there if he didn't want to share it with her. She understood that there were some parts of him he didn't want to share with anyone, ever.

"Yes, and it helps. I talk about it there, but not here and not with you."

She nodded against his shoulder. "I understand. But if you ever-"

He cut her off with a kiss to her temple. "I know but I never will. Thank you for understanding."

"De nada," she answered.

He chuckled. "You're still telling me you don't speak Spanish?"

She shrugged. "I know a few words. Everyone knows a few words."

He moved so that he was face to face with her and she caught the twinkle in his eye in the firelight. "Exactly how many words is a few words?"

"I don't know. A few."

"How about besable?"

She shook her head. "Not one of them."

He kissed her deeply leaving her near breathless when he let her go.

"Kissable. How about Hermosa?" he asked as he brushed her lips with his.

"Beautiful," she replied confidently.

"Te deseo?" He offered as worked his way down the column of her throat with his mouth.

"No," she said on a tail of a sigh as his hand came up to cup her breast.

"It means, 'I want you'." he replied as he brushed his thumb across her nipple, bringing it to a hardened point.

A groan escaped her lips as she arched her back into his touch.

"Impresionante?"

She shook her head. "Not that one."

He swiped his lips fleetingly across hers again. "It means breathtaking. As in, 'Usted es impresionante'." He smiled as he watched the rosy color flush over her cheeks and across her chest. "Now te estas sonrojando." He told her. "You're blushing," he whispered against her ear.

"It's hot in here." she countered as she buried her hand in his hair.

"Estas Caliente," he murmured as he peppered kisses along her jawline.

She giggled even as she felt her cheeks grow more rosy. "I know what that means."

He kissed the smile from her lips as he pulled her in tighter. She felt him sigh into her chest and heard him whisper something she didn't understand.

Then he suddenly pulled back and sat up beside her.

She sat up as well as he shifted to face her.

"What is it?" she asked at his abrupt shift in mood.

The smile was gone from his lips replaced by an earnestness that nearly made her shiver.

"I have to say something." he began after swallowing hard.

"Okay." She took his hand in hers. "You can tell me anything."

"I've been lying to you since we got here." He told her.

"Lying about what?" She could feel the knot beginning to form in her stomach. She had no idea where he was going but she didn't like the look of resolution on his face. He looked as if he were about to say something he didn't want to say, confess something he didn't want to admit.

"I," he started, then stopped before trying again. "I just," Again he didn't get very far.

"Luke, it's okay. Whatever it is, it's okay." she tried to reassure him.

He took another deep breath and let it out slowly before wetting his lips with the tips of his tongue. "This isn't something I do." he explained. "Talking about things has never been easy for me."

"You mean us? You want to talk about us?"

He nodded and she gave him a warm smile. "We don't have to talk about us. We both know where we stand. You don't have to talk if you don't want to. I understand."

He shook his head. "I don't think you do," he said.

"What do you mean?"

He sighed in frustration. "You need to know."

"What do I need to know?" Her mind was going wild, imagining everything him telling her he was really still seeing Lisa to him telling her he didn't ever want to see her again. The knot in her stomach tightened further.

"Estoy enamorada de ti y no me, imagino mi vida sin ti," he said in a rush that took her breath away.

She tried to translate the words in her head, taking each of them individually and trying to find the ones she recognized.

"I'm sorry all I understood was something about imagining your life." she confessed regrettably. He was clearly having such a hard time and she wanted to make it easier on him. But she really had no idea what he was trying to say.

The fire was beginning to die, making it harder to make out the features of his face in the near darkness. She squeezed his hand to let him know she was still listening intently.

"It means, I'm in love with you and I can't imagine my life without you," he explained again in such a rush she had a hard time keeping up despite the fact that he was speaking English.

Her brain was in a fog and the only sound she managed to make was, "Oh."

After a moment of silence passed while she processed she finally came up with a not much more helpful, "What?"

"Uh-uh," he answered into the darkness. "I've said it twice now. I'm not repeating it unless you say something more than, 'oh'."

She took a breath and cleared her throat. "But you did just say you're in love with me?" she asked to make sure she'd heard the right words.

"Yeah," he confirmed quietly, uncertainly.

"How? When? What?" she asked in quick successions.

Suddenly he pulled his hand out of hers and retreated to his own side of the bed. "I'm sorry," she heard him mutter. "I told Rossi he was wrong."

"Wait, what was Rossi wrong about?" She was so confused. She had no idea what he was talking about or where any of this had come from. He couldn't be serious. Luke Alvez, her very own Superman, could not possibly have meant what he just said. There was no way.

She heard him huff in exasperation. "He was the one that made me realize how I felt. He said you were in love with me, too. He said we just weren't ready to know it before now."

"But now you're sorry. Did you not mean it?"

"Of course I meant it. I would never say something like that if I didn't mean it." He insisted.

It was her turn to huff in frustration. "Then why are you sorry?" she demanded.

"Obviously you don't feel the same. I shouldn't have put it out there like that. I really don't want to mess this thing we have up. I didn't mean to move so quickly. I'm sorry if I scared you."

"Scared me? Are you crazy?" she asked rhetorically.

"All you said was, 'oh'," he answered anyway.

She scrambled over to him and squeezed his hand. "I'm so sorry. You caught me by surprise. I wasn't expecting-" she stopped herself mid-babble. "What I meant to say was, te amo, Luke. Te amo tambien."

He was back beside her in an instant. "He was right?"

"He's Dave Rossi. He's always right." she laughed.

Then he was kissing her and Dave Rossi was the furthest thing on her mind.


	13. Chapter 13

The first thing he noticed was the absence of Roxy barking feverishly at the front door to his house. He'd been gone nearly a week. So where was his best pal to welcome him home?

He pulled into the drive and killed the engine. His hand moved instinctively to the butt of his gun. He gave Penelope a look that said 'stay here', and she gave him a nod of acceptance.

The case had taken a day of solve after the snow melted. Had it not been for the blizzard it would have been an uneventful overnight trip that lead him right back to this cold and empty house that suddenly didn't appear to be as empty as it should.

He felt his stomach drop as the sense of wrongness grew the closer he got to the silent house. A heavy dusk filled the nearly twilight sky. Stars had begun to shine through the grayness. He glanced back over his shoulder at the thought of brightly shining stars to where Penny sat in the passenger seat of his truck waiting for him to give the all clear. Then he immediately cursed under his breath and put his attention back where it belonged, on his entirely too quiet house.

She really was his worse distraction.

He moved to the living room window and flattened himself to the wall beside it. Seeing no movement inside, he went to the door and again flattened himself on the wall beside it. Nothing appeared out of the ordinary. When he tried the knob it was locked as it should be.

Thoughts of an intruder began to fade as fear for Roxy's health started to take hold. He jammed his hand quickly in his pocket, retracted his keys and opened the lock.

He was still cautious enough to make his first step inside a slow one with his gun draw and in front of him.

When still nothing moved once he was inside, he began a methodical room to room search, starting with the kitchen and ending with the master bathroom.

Now confusion began to sink into his thoughts. Where the hell was his dog? Nothing looked amiss and no one was lurking in the shadows. All that was out of place was a lack of Roxy.

He went back to the truck, grabbed their bags from the back and waiting while Penelope grabbed up her purse and laptop bag and joined him.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Roxy's missing."

The look of horror on her face must have matched his own. He certainly felt that way as the words moved past his lips, giving voice to the fear growing inside him.

She opened her mouth to say something. Something about the movement of her lips captured his attention and for a moment everything else faded as his mind fully grasped what was happening. Roxy was missing. Either she'd somehow gotten out and ran off, or someone had taken her. He knew Roxy. If she had gotten out, she'd have been waiting for him on the doorstep.

He realized Penny was waving her hand in front of him and he focused back in on what she was saying.

"Call your dog sitter. Maybe's she's just taken her out for a walk or to the park." She told him.

Her suggestion sparked a flicker of hope and he grabbed his phone.

Micah had only just answered when he heard the booming bark coming from the sidewalk behind him.

He turned and found himself face to face with his dog thief and ex-girlfriend, Lisa jogging towards him with Roxy pulling her along in an effort to get to him.

Roxy's paws went to his chest to minute she was in reach and she went about welcoming her best friend home zealously.

"What are you doing here?" he asked around a face full of exuberant canine.

Lisa looked at him for a moment, then glanced behind him to where Penny was standing with their luggage, then back to him. "I came home so we could talk, but I think this pretty much covers the entire conversation."

He raised back up to his full height as Roxy began to settle down. "You've been gone almost a month. You weren't returning my calls or texts. I thought that was the end of the conversation."

"So you just went and started a new one with someone else already?"

He took Roxy's leash from her. Roxy, given more room now, went immediately to Penny to give her an enthusiastic greeting as well. Penny was frozen looking like a deer in headlights.

He gave her a reassuring smile that she ignored. "Door's open. You can go on inside if you want." he offered her a way of escaping.

She nodded slowly, shifted her back and started towards the house. Luke handed her Roxy's leash as she passed by and she took the dog with her inside.

"So, this is a thing now?" Lisa asked as soon as the front door closed.

Luke moved to the front of his truck, leaned his back against it and crossed his arms over his chest. "If I'm being completely honest, it's been a thing for a while." He stopped her when he was the outrage begin to take over her face. "No, not like that. We weren't together when we were together. I didn't mean it like that."

"But you're together now?"

He nodded slowly, resolutely.

Lisa shifted. "Are you happy?"

He sighed reinforcing himself for the reaction his answer might bring. But he was determined to be honest. "Yes, I am." he said, firmly, leaving no room for question in his tone.

Her eyes fell from his face and landed at her shifting feet. "I'm really glad, Luke. I'm happy for you, for both of you. Penny's great." She answered after a moment of silence. Then she glanced up at him again finally. "You know, I always knew there was something there. The first time I met her in the restaurant I knew."

Luke shifted uncomfortably. "It wasn't like that," he started.

Lisa shook her head, cutting him off at the pass. "Oh, I know that too. I know she wasn't trying to steal you or lure you away. I know that neither of you knew at the time. But I did."

"And you still moved in with me?" he questioned.

"I told myself I was wrong. I really wanted this to work. We look so good on paper."

He chuckled. "I suppose we do."

"I'll just call for an Uber and grab my things," she suggested as she took out her phone.

"I can give you a lift." he offered.

She shook her head. "You look beat and I know you're just getting home. I saw Micah this afternoon and she said you'd been gone a week."

"That's who I was calling when you came up. I thought someone had taken Roxy. We got snowed in."

She laughed. "Snowed in? Like trapped together somewhere?" When he nodded, she smiled. "I supposed that was all it took."

He couldn't help the broadness of his grin. "It seems so."

He joined Penny in the kitchen where she was attempting to put together the makings of a meal while Lisa got her things. She moved stiffly around the compact space until he gave her a smile and he watched as she shoulders visibly relaxed.

"It's fine. She's just getting her stuff," he whispered in her ear before moving in for a kiss.

"Are you sure you don't want me to leave instead so you can talk?" Penny offered, quietly.

He kissed her again. "We've said everything we need to say. I'm with you. That's where I'm staying and I couldn't be happier and she's happy for us."

Luke told Lisa goodbye after helping her to the car with her bags and she returned his key.

It felt a little odd taking the key directly from one woman and handing it to another. But Penny took it silently and added it to her jumbled mess of a keyring.

"So what happens now?" Luke asked as they sat down on his over-stuffed, comfortable brown sofa after their snap-dash dinner.

She gave him a funny look. "I thought we were gonna watch some T.V., take a long bath, and go to bed. We just talked about it over dinner. Or you already getting senile?"

"I meant in a broader sense." he explained.

She didn't answer him for a long time and he thought she about to say something he didn't like.

"I can't be sure. I haven't fully examined the bathtub." she answered, with a straight face. Roxy had taken up residence at their feet, stretching herself on the carpet long the length of the couch. "Your dog makes an excellent foot warmer, though, so there is that." Then she glanced towards the kitchen. "But something definitely needs to be done about that. Do you ever cook?"

He laughed. "I'm never home long enough to bother shopping."

She wrinkled her nose. "Well, that isn't much of an incentive."

"I wasn't aware I needed to incentivize you to get you to move in with me."

She laughed. "That was what that was? You were asking me to move in with you just now?"

He laughed with her. "I was stumbling my way through it, yeah. Roxy thinks it would be easier if you just stayed here with us instead of taking her back and forth."

The smile fell from her face. "I don't know, Luke. You just said goodbye to your ex like literally an hour ago. Doesn't this feel a little quick?"

"No, it feels like nearly four years in the making. I don't want to spend another day without you. Te amo." He answered, honestly, solemnly.

She moved to him and sank into his chest as she kissed him thoroughly. "Yo tambien te amo."

He chuckled when they finally came up for air. "You don't speak Spanish," he teased.

She snorted and rolled her eyes, "And you're bad with women."

The End


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